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Vogt, Von Ogden, 1879- 
Modern worship | 








Modern Worship 





Lowell Institute Lectures 1927 


By the Same Author 
ART AND RELIGION 


Modern Worship 


BY VON OGDEN VOGT 





Hew haven : Dale University Press 


LONDON - HUMPHREY MILFORD 
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 


1927 


PRINCETON THEO) 


RAN Nal TORR RAINE oN 


| JAN | | Joo 





Copyright 1927 by Yale University Press 
Printed in the United States of America 


of ies Le 





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acc m y wife ed oe 
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PREFACE 


OUR of the chapters herewith presented are the 

Lowell Institute Lectures for 1927, on the Form 
and Content of Modern Worship. They are printed 
as read excepting that the third lecture had to be 
somewhat curtailed in the reading. The additional 
chapter contains some brief comments on aspects of 
worship which need attention today. There is a con- 
siderable desire for larger quantities of concrete ma- 
terials which can be worked up into services of wor- 
ship, but they simply do not yet exist. Experiments 
are being made and new materials formulated, but 
not on a sufficient scale or of sufficient merit for pub- 
lication as suitable for widespread adoption. T he time 
should soon be here, however, for such a collection. I 
have not attempted to codrdinate the theory of wor- 
ship here set forth with other major conceptions, but 
rather for the sake of simplicity and clarity to keep 
within the limits of the suggestion of worship as cele- 
bration. That others are thinking along similar lines 
1s indicated by a few excerpts from two papers in The 
International Journal of Ethics for July, 1926, from 
Sperry’s Reality in Worship, Pratt’s Religious Con- 
sciousness and Wieman’s Religious Experience and 
Scientific Method. 

Von OcpeEn Voct. 

The First Unitarian Church, 


Chicago, Illinois, 
July 26, 1927 





CONTENTS 


I. RELIGION as CELEBRATION I 


Celebration in ordinary life. Character of celebration as enjoy- 
ment and recollection. The festal character of historic religion. 
The vitality of form, The relation of celebration to truth, to 
ethics, and to the beauty of life. The changing recollective con- 
tent of worship. The object celebrated. 


II. Lirurcicat Form 29 


The laws of form in all the arts, Study of unity, movement, 
rhythm, style, design. Application of aesthetic canons to the art of 
liturgics. The principal patterns of worship. 


III. Lirurcicat MaTeriAts 55 


The liturgical revival. Dilemma of old and new content. Illustra- 
tive materials for the several elements of worship: Preparation, 
Presentation, Humility, Vitality, Recollection, Illumination, Dedi- 
cation, Peace. 


IV. THe AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE 105 


The unifying value of structure. Rhythm, movement, color, pro- 
portion, style, materials, surface and mass. Significance of the 
altar. Intimations of human presence. The external building as 
symbol. Recollective symbols; traditional, educative, industrial. 


V. PRoBLEMs IN CONTRAST 131 


Formality and informality. Subjective and objective. Enrichment 
and simplicity. Specific and generic religion. Personal and social 
religion. Congregational participation and priestly conduct. 


INDEX 155 





CHAPTER I 


Religion As Celebration 


Worship is like a breathing spell in a long and arduous 
foot race, or the hour of roll call in a prolonged and hard- 
fought battle: . . . it is altogether indispensable to sane 
and wholesome living—it is important enough in life to 
warrant the erection of classical temples and Gothic cathe- 
drals. It is indeed so important that one finds one’s self 
sometimes wondering how any of us can afford to do any- 
thing but educate ourselves in this art. . . . To be effec- 
tively a person and thereby help others to be persons is the 
sum of the abiding satisfactions of life. Worship in the 
sense of this aim is natural and necessary, and in the Great 
Community all mature men worship. Its objectives are not 
absolutely fixed as to their content. 


Guy ALLAN TAWNEY 


I. 


UR first thoughts together will remark some of 

the relations of form and content in worship 
considered under the aspect of celebration. The sec- 
ond lecture will discuss the place of form in worship 
by a brief note of the formal elements in any work of 
art, whether pictorial, structural, musical or other, 
and the application of the findings to the particular 
art of worship. The third lecture will offer some defi- 
nite suggestions of concrete material for the different 
parts of the liturgy, some specific content for modern 
worship. The fourth and last lecture will seek to dis- 
cover the formal values and content possibilities to be 
developed not through the liturgy but by the church 
building, its structural forms and the symbolisms of 
its decoration. 

There are many ways of approaching the problem 
of worship, some of them of great value and sugges- 
tiveness. For the sake of simplicity and clearness I 
am proposing abruptly to consider worship as the 
celebration of life. For the sake, also, of the so-called 
religious outsider, I put the matter thus. There are 
many modern men and women of high spiritual gifts 
who do not find themselves at home in any of the 
households of specific faith. Some of these are scien- 
tists and thinkers, some philanthropists, while others 
find their spiritual happiness in the world of the arts. 
The religious institution is itself in great measure re- 
sponsible for the alienation of many of her choicest 
children. It has so often defined religion in terms of 


4 MODERN WORSHIP 


particular ideas or ideals that many of those who 
could not agree with its definition have been lost to 
mother church. Yet I do not hesitate to challenge the 
intelligence of the outsider, to criticize his way of life 
and to commiserate his truncated and partial experi- 
ence. It can still be claimed for the public worship of 
the church that it offers the one incomparable privi- 
lege and opportunity for the all-comprehending ex- 
pression of the life of man. The cause of social wel- 
fare beomes barren without some vision of what is to 
be the beautiful content of that welfare. The arts 
cannot come to maturity without a robust humanism. 
Philanthropy and art need each other and the place 
to meet is at the celebration of life which rejoices in 
both. As to the thinker, modern religion does not ask 
his agreement to any intellectual tenets whatever. It 
would say, rather, Take all your thoughts and all 
your experiences of life, roll them together, think 
them together and enjoy them in the highest and 
purest way. Religion includes definitions and deeds, 
but first of all it is celebration. It is time to turn the 
tables upon those who ignore religion. They have too 
long assumed that the God of religion was an abstrac- 
tion, a weakly held postulate, an impossible assump- 
tion. But the God whom we seek in the worship of 
today is the great reality, whatever its nature be. We 
are not bent upon any inconsequential exercise or any 
fool’s errand, but upon that high and perpetual quest 
in comparison with which every other mode of life is 
indeed an abstraction. There is that beyond ourselves, 
yet embracing ourselves, with which we have to deal 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 5 


and which will deal with us. Religion is the attempt 
to understand that relation, which is an actual one, 
and to enjoy it. Primarily, the religious moment is 
not the moment of action or of thinking but the mo- 
ment of joy. Historically, the worship of man is most 
accurately characterized not as intellectual or moral 
but as festal. : 

Celebration is a prominent aspect of ordinary life. 
In the nation’s life, special holidays are set apart for 
the remembrance of founders and heroes, victories 
and deliverances and other aspects of national or civic 
good fortune. The old-fashioned agricultural fair 
and the new-fashioned industrial exhibit, together 
with the occasional larger exposition, constitute cele- 
brations of the resources of the land and the achieve- 
ments of toil. Much of the charm of domestic life 
centers about intimate family celebrations. A man 
gets a raise in pay, and takes his wife out to dinner, 
just for a little celebration. Birth and wedding anni- 
versaries are made occasions of festivity. Public holi- 
days are customary opportunities for the heightened 
realization of family and personal connections. The 
great religious holidays contribute a powerful tone to 
the spiritual temper of a people. In these celebra- 
tions, life is perpetually readjusted to its principal 
centers of reference. They are not composed merely 
of the trivialities of light pleasure, but often rise to 
the quality of an august measurement of time and 
the significance of events and of persons. 

The celebration is an occasion of vivid recollection. 
It remembers again the original event which has be- 


6 MODERN WORSHIP 


come important in the life of persons or of nations. 
The celebrations of a people thus become at length 
the description of its philosophy of life, the defini- 
tion of those things which are most highly valued. 
Yet the celebration is also an occasion of vivid present 
enjoyment. The past event is recalled and celebrated 
not from a sense of duty but largely as an oppor- 
tunity for a new festival occasion. Sometimes the 
original significance of the event celebrated is all but 
lost in the perpetuation of the custom for its own 
sake. This leads to the multiplication of insignificant 
and unworthy celebrations, which very fact is ample 
testimony to the prevailing desire for life as it is 
realized in celebration. If people are so prone to 
unworthy festivals how much more might they be led 
to those which are highest and purest. 

There is a moment familiar to all men, frequently 
achieved by many men, a moment of unconscious 
celebration. It is the moment of rest after toil, of re- 
view and satisfaction, of well-being and quiet singing 
happiness. It is very close to the heart of the reli- 
gious experience. The laborer comes home from the 
mill or the mine with his pay check at the close of the 
week. He buys food and shoes and all things needful 
for his home and children. When all is provided and 
all are fed, he sits with his pipe in the evening of the 
day, profoundly happy that he has been able to be a 
good provider, profoundly thankful for the gener- 
ous providence in which he finds his well-being. I 
have seen this in other men and I know it myself. In 
the strange and sweet notes of a flute sounding from 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 7 


the housetop through the Egyptian twilight, I have 
heard the immemorial pain and desire and ecstasy of 
man. This is the inner praise and celebration of life 
which is religion. It is the acknowledgment of grace 
and the assumption of responsibility. To lift this ex- 
perience into consciousness and universality is the na- 
ture and function of public worship. To be in love 
with life, to have a zest for life, to find it good, to 
love not merely this or that partial good, but to love 
life, all of it, to love God, this is religion. To praise 
and celebrate life, not merely this good fortune or 
delivery from that distress, but the memory of all 
things, the hope of all things, life entire and com- 
plete, to praise God and to celebrate his goodness, this 
is worship. 

Celebration is on the whole the most prominent as- 
pect of historic religion. Our own spiritual lineage 
derives from a definite historic religion, the religion 
of the Old Testament, and we have not yet exhausted 
its rich intimations. A more complete study, covering 
the usages of other faiths, would display some of the 
same results, but we are most familiar with those of 
our own inheritance. Through several hundred years 
of Jewish history, the practical meaning of religion to 
the tribesman was the celebration of the great feasts. 
I do not say that it did not mean many other things 
also, local rites and family usages, great thoughts and 
revolutionary teachings, regulations and habits be- 
come almost second nature in the midst of daily life, 
and all the long and intricate story of the rise and 
fall of its customs. But from the beginning of the 


8 MODERN WORSHIP 


national history until the destruction of the temple at 
Jerusalem by Titus, the distinctively religious experi- 
ence of the common people was centered about the 
great cultural festivals of the year, the feast of un- 
leavened bread, the feast of weeks, the feast of the 
passover. Before the legal reform of Deuteronomy 
the rites and ceremonies of the tribal high places con- 
stituted a rich apparatus of popular festivity. After 
the reform the major daily sacrifices of the temple at 
Jerusalem were essentially cultural and festal. No 
more evidence than that of the eighth-century proph- 
ets themselves is needed to reveal the chief features 
of the national religion and its popularity. Feasts of 
the new moon and solemn assemblies, unmoral and 
perhaps immoral, were loved and cherished by the 
people. It is very difficult for Protestants, with our 
intense intellectual interest in religion, and our con- 
vinced identification of moral earnestness with reli- 
gion, to imagine popular religion so absorbingly fes- 
tival in character as was the actual religion of the 
Jewish kingdoms. 

The essential nature and power of the religious ex- 
perience for them was its high enjoyment. Probably 
no great cult was ever developed because it was con- 
sciously considered enjoyable. Probably no great cult 
was ever developed without a differing mixture of 
motives on the part of those concerned with it. Some 
essential basis of genuine belief in the practical effi- 
cacy of the rite was doubtless at the heart of every 
religious usage. But this does not tell the whole story. 
Certainly the king fostered the cult, as kings have al- 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 9 


ways done, in part at least because of some recogni- 
tion of its power as an agency of control and its force 
for societal cohesion. Surely the high priest, standing 
beside the king, shared a variation of the same mo- 
tive. Still another variation of non-religious motiva- 
tion, possibly more mixed with earthly elements, 
doubtless influenced the common priest. And the 
people themselves, if they were taught to perform 
the prescribed rites in order to retain the favor of the 
Lord of Hosts in time of war, or the local gods of 
fertility in time of peace, actually did maintain them 
because they enjoyed it. If they were taught that they 
could secure divine favor for the arms of the nation 
and the harvests of the year, what they really wanted 
was something better, and what they got was some- 
thing better, a season of celebration, release from 
drudgery, high festivity with their kinsfolk and 
friends, and some stir of noble companionship as 
tribes before the Lord. I do not say that they got 
these things in their highest or purest forms. I do say 
that what they got without a conscious motive for 
seeking it, a by-product, so to speak, of what they 
were supposed to get, was really the most valid thing 
in their experience. I am putting the matter in this 
way partly because I have recently heard it said that 
the rites of religion were always developed to secure 
what man needed, victory in war and the harvests of 
peace, and that now no rites are required because man 
can supply his own necessities. But what man has al- 
ways desired and needed and now desires is not the 
divine assistance for fat harvests, but the divine com- 


10 MODERN WORSHIP 


munion for its own sake as the highest happiness and 
destiny. 

It is important to distinguish in the history of 
popular religion between assigned motives and real 
motives. Religious acts have always been performed 
for some reason clear to consciousness, taught and re- 
ceived through tradition, but also out of urgencies 
less clearly defined, half-instinctive, possibly half- 
debased, yet also in part more true to essential reali- 
ties and more near to the highest values than the 
specified purposes themselves. If the king fostered 
the cult for one reason, though he proclaimed an- 
other, and so also the high priest and the common 
priest, each real reason differing from each specified 
reason, the common people did the same. They at- 
tended on their religious duties in part because they 
believed what they were taught of the values to be 
derived. I am myself convinced that they attended to 
their religious duties in the main because they en- 
joyed it. 

A candid analysis of Christian history will disclose 
no different conclusion. In the whole history of 
Christian worship, many other urgencies have been 
effective, fear, discipline, duty, ambition, the dire 
necessities of sorrow, the despairs of sin and all the 
manifold complexities which enter into the motiva- 
tion of human conduct. But on the whole, Christians 
have always gone to church and still go to church be- 
cause they enjoy it. Mediaeval religion was not all 
fear of hell nor Puritan religion all conscience, and 
as for Wesleyan religion, it developed an almost riot- 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION Il 


ous pleasure in the religious revival. It would be 
necessary to review the whole brilliant pageantry of 
the Catholic centuries to gain any adequate impres- 
sion of the festal character of Christian worship 
throughout the most of its history. In certain coun- 
tries today there is still maintained an elaborate sys- 
tem of feast days and ceremonial occasions which are 
the opportunities of celebration for the people. Yet 
nowhere can be found anything like the amplitude of 
the full mediaeval development which undoubtedly 
carried to inordinate excesses the celebrative side of 
life. I do not pretend to claim that Protestantism has 
displayed much conscious interest in religion as cele- 
bration. I do believe that Protestant human beings, 
like other human beings, have maintained their serv- 
ices of religion in the main because of the high happi- 
ness of the religious experience realized in public 
worship. As Protestants we like to believe that our re- 
ligious loyalties are based upon great convictions and 
the manly assumption of moral responsibilities, and 
I have no quarrel with this wholesome point of view. 
I am only seeking to suggest that the moment of wor- 
ship is a time for the legitimate enjoyment of those 
convictions, and an occasion for the incomparable 
satisfactions of the highest self-realization by the 
renewal of loyalties. There may always be differ- 
ences of opinion concerning the endless chains of 
causes and effects, the perpetual and unbroken link- 
ages of means and ends. Possibly some will always 
regard as ends what others designate as means. There 
are dangers both ways. I simply choose to regard high 


12 MODERN WORSHIP 


communion as the end, thoughts and affairs as means. 
And I believe this choice, either consciously or uncon- 
sciously, to be that of the majority of religious 
people. 

The celebrative side of religion may thus be called 
its central aspect. Religion has always had its mental 
interest, its cosmogonies, its philosophies, its theolo- 
gies. It has always had its moral interest, its divina- 
tions, its lawgivings, its prophecies, its personal and 
social reforms. But these are not religion itself. They 
describe it or issue from it. They are assisting causes, 
or resultant activities, or only abstractions, not the 
complete and living experience. The great annual 
festival, the feast-day, the holiday, the weekly serv- 
ice of worship, these have fostered religion itself, 
these have been the immemorial occasions of the 
fullest life. 

The celebrations of religion revive and recall not 
simply one event or a single hero nor even the his- 
tory and political fortune of a whole people, but all 
events, all peoples, all conceptions, all of life. Reli- 
gion celebrates nothing less than the whole of man’s 
existence and all his faiths about its source, nature, 
duties and destiny. Worship is essentially the praise 
and celebration of life. In worship, man comes before 
the Lord with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 
As in all celebration, the religious festival is not 
merely the barren recollection of a good that once 
was. It is present joy and power, the happiness of an 
immediate touch of life at its highest and best. 

This is the abiding element in religion. Ideas 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 13 


change, theologies come and go, but the celebration 
of life remains. Morals change and ethics are rede- 
fined, but their ends are not in themselves. Something 
more vital and comprehensive, that abundant life 
that is desired by all, and for all, must have some oc- 
casion of actualization. Here is our first glimpse of 
the relation of form and content in religion. The 
great generic mold of celebration is the abiding form 
of religion. The often replaced mass of ideas and 
ideals is the ever changing content. The one is neces- 
sary for identity and reference, the other for growth 
and development. The one gives joy and vitality, the 
other genuineness and direction. The one is penetra- 
tion to the heart of things, the other regard for the 
farthest orbits of existence. 

Our first suggestion, then, is that there is much in 
common life and in the history of specific religion to 
favor the conception of worship as celebration. 

Meanwhile, we have reached a field of problems. 
If religion is the celebration of faiths, what about 
error? If religion is the celebration of life as good, 
what about evil? If religion is celebration in the 
beauty of the holy day, what about the ugliness of 
many other days? Before an answer to these ques- 
tions is attempted, however, it is necessary to make 
one more comment about the form of worship. That 
comment is this, that it is primarily the form of wor- 
ship rather than its content which is the chief source 
of the vitality of the experience and hence of its high 
enjoyment. 

I well know the objections which will be directed 


14 MODERN WORSHIP 


against such a proposition, that you cannot have reli- 
gion that does not seek to be true, nor religion that is 
not founded upon righteousness. With both of these 
assertions we must all agree, but they cannot gainsay 
the findings of a study of the psychological facts. Let 
me admit here a real danger of our times. There is a 
renewed interest in the forms of worship which is be- 
coming widespread. There is an increased interest in 
all the arts which is reflected in the revolutionary im- 
provement in church building taking place today. 
There is a revival of the minor ecclesiastical arts such 
as would be extremely shocking to the early Puritans 
if they could see it. I fear the dangers of this move- 
ment as much as anyone, the dangers of seeking di- 
rectly those rewards which come only from dedication 
and sacrifice. I believe as much as anyone that we can- 
not have the greatest worship without great convic- 
tions, that we cannot have the greatest worship with- 
out a sweeping, searching moral passion on the part 
of earnest leaders, possibly not without the enkindling 
of a popular movement of moral idealism. Only the 
great periods of formation and re-formation in faith 
and morals have established long continuing norms 
of public worship. The norms have not been mere 
shapes, they have been forms fashioned in part at 
least by great faiths and consuming ethics. But there 
are several further things to say. One is that we do 
not at just this time have the pleasure of living at a 
moment of widespread agreement concerning the 
ideas and the ideals of life which compose the content 
of worship. If we are to have worship at all just now, 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 15 


we must have it in a less pervasive way than the 
popular adherences of such large-scale movements as 
Lutheranism, Puritanism or Wesleyanism in their 
initial stages. For another thing, it is possible that we 
may be ourselves upon the eve of a comparable ref- 
ormation. We have already at hand many of the ma- 
terials which are to fashion the faiths and the ethics 
of the coming time. Amongst the new materials which 
are at hand those which belong in the region of the 
arts cannot be ignored. It is obviously necessary to 
discover and use the findings of science that are sig- 
nificant for religion. It is also necessary to appraise 
the revival of the arts and discover the validities 
which it contains. Again, the major forms of normal 
worship cannot be changed every year or two, nor 
every generation or two, merely to fit all the passing 
fashions in ideas and ideals. Genuinely revolutionary 
ideas do not come so frequently nor do ordinary per- 
sons experience frequent revolutions in character. 
The normal values of worship are found in its power 
_to quicken and revive generally accepted conceptions. 
Furthermore, there are many of us who hold that the 
normal forms of worship follow a psychological pat- 
tern rather than an intellectual or moral one, as I 
shall hope to discuss later. These considerations an- 
swer most of the objections against the proposal that 
the vitality of the experience of worship is derived 
more largely from form than from content. 

Still the objector may not be satisfied. Do you 
mean to say, he asks, that a sense of the peace of God 
is a derivation of some outer formal physical influ- 


14 MODERN WORSHIP 


against such a proposition, that you cannot have reli- 
gion that does not seek to be true, nor religion that is 
not founded upon righteousness. With both of these 
assertions we must all agree, but they cannot gainsay 
the findings of a study of the psychological facts. Let 
me admit here a real danger of our times. There is a 
renewed interest in the forms of worship which is be- 
coming widespread. There is an increased interest in 
all the arts which is reflected in the revolutionary im- 
provement in church building taking place today. 
There is a revival of the minor ecclesiastical arts such 
as would be extremely shocking to the early Puritans 
if they could see it. I fear the dangers of this move- 
ment as much as anyone, the dangers of seeking di- 
rectly those rewards which come only from dedication 
and sacrifice. I believe as much as anyone that we can- 
not have the greatest worship without great convic- 
tions, that we cannot have the greatest worship with- 
out a sweeping, searching moral passion on the part 
of earnest leaders, possibly not without the enkindling 
of a popular movement of moral idealism. Only the 
great periods of formation and re-formation in faith 
and morals have established long continuing norms 
of public worship. The norms have not been mere 
shapes, they have been forms fashioned in part at 
least by great faiths and consuming ethics. But there 
are several further things to say. One is that we do 
not at just this time have the pleasure of living at a 
moment of widespread agreement concerning the 
ideas and the ideals of life which compose the content 
of worship. If we are to have worship at all just now, 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 15 


we must have it in a less pervasive way than the 
popular adherences of such large-scale movements as 
Lutheranism, Puritanism or Wesleyanism in their 
initial stages. For another thing, it is possible that we 
may be ourselves upon the eve of a comparable ref- 
ormation. We have already at hand many of the ma- 
terials which are to fashion the faiths and the ethics 
of the coming time. Amongst the new materials which 
are at hand those which belong in the region of the 
arts cannot be ignored. It is obviously necessary to 
discover and use the findings of science that are sig- 
nificant for religion. It is also necessary to appraise 
the revival of the arts and discover the validities 
which it contains. Again, the major forms of normal 
worship cannot be changed every year or two, nor 
every generation or two, merely to fit all the passing 
fashions in ideas and ideals. Genuinely revolutionary 
ideas do not come so frequently nor do ordinary per- 
sons experience frequent revolutions in character. 
The normal values of worship are found in its power 
_to quicken and revive generally accepted conceptions. 
Furthermore, there are many of us who hold that the 
normal forms of worship follow a psychological pat- 
tern rather than an intellectual or moral one, as I 
shall hope to discuss later. These considerations an- 
swer most of the objections against the proposal that 
the vitality of the experience of worship is derived 
more largely from form than from content. 

Still the objector may not be satisfied. Do you 
mean to say, he asks, that a sense of the peace of God 
is a derivation of some outer formal physical influ- 


16 MODERN WORSHIP 


ence rather than of the spirit? I do mean to say some- 
thing very like that, and the same concerning other 
religious feelings. In unusual situations, some disas- 
ter, some swirling confusion of events, or other crisis 
drives the spirit to seek sanctuary and peace. In the 
round of ordinary life, the spirit does not rise to the 
capacity of great apprehensions without a precedent 
stir of the senses by some space or shape or sound, 
formal in character. 

In support of the proposition of the derivation of 
vitality from form, I ask you to note the facts of 
your own experience or observation, the immediate 
appeal of form to the senses, and the deliberate use 
of form to vivify content. In ordinary celebration 
there is usually some material element cast in such a 
form as to express and vivify the festival. It may be 
a birthday cake, it may be a grand civic parade, but 
the occasion is hardly a celebration without it. It is 
probably true ordinarily that more people go to 
church for good rhetoric than for new ideas. There 
are of course times and circumstances when a whole 
community or a whole nation are moved by the stir 
of new thoughts. Yet if in the midst of just such 
times our proposition is true, how much more is it 
true in less critical times. There are hundreds of 
preachers in America today teaching the same ideas 
that Dr. Fosdick does, who do not have so many 
hearers. Quite simply, he is a superior artist in rheto- 
ric. It may be said that there are today multitudes of 
people mentally restless, spiritually unsatisfied, mill- 
ing round, hunting round for some truth to guide 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 17 


them, seeking light. So there are, perhaps more than 
ever before. Yet it might be said with more truth that 
what they are seeking is abundant life. They will 
never find a neat little package of ideas to satisfy 
them, but they may be led.to find a rich and beautiful 
life. I have a neighbor and friend, an excellent 
preacher, an entirely genuine and sweet-spirited man, 
who likes to think that people come to hear his ideas. 
To some extent he is correct. Yet he has a curiously 
charming gift of poetic speech, and once admitted to 
me that he thought people came again because they 
got some little lift from that quality. I remind you, 
moreover, of the considerable number of notable 
preachers, whose ideas have been commonplace, if not 
shoddy, some of whose morals have been weak if not 
low, who have drawn multitudes of hearers by the 
eift of tongues. I think often with most grateful re- 
membrance of the very beautiful white meeting 
house in the Connecticut hills where first I preached. 
The parishioners were mostly farmers. It is a pro- 
found gratification to feel that during a ministry of 
several years amongst those admirable people, there 
was a real progress in the truth. Yet I am convinced 
that the most of them came to church because there 
they received, through the inspiration of the various 
forms utilized, a revival of faiths and a renewal of 
courage for the duties of life. Simply to change their 
workaday clothes and sit in even rows together in the 
old white meeting house was a formal habit alone 
sufficient to make the difference between civilized life 
and barbarism. If all this be true in these instances of 


18 MODERN WORSHIP 


religious bodies supposed to be little influenced by 
form, how much more must it be true amongst those 
bodies where the formal arts, structural, plastic, pic- 
torial and ceremonial, have been more extensively 
developed. I do believe that many times whole reli- 
gious bodies or whole movements of religious interest 
have been stirred by the sheer spiritual appeal of new 
thoughts and new moral outlooks. But I believe also 
that ordinarily the religious imagination has been 
moved to activity and to high enjoyment by the for- 
mal elements of the great cultural ceremonies. This 
is generally true of Old Testament religion, of Chris- 
tianity and, indeed, of the history of all religions. 

It is true because of the direct immediate appeal of 
good form to the senses. The formal elements of 
worship do not need any intermediaries. They are 
themselves the words, the communicating agencies, 
the mediators between God and man. The effects of 
form are immediate and physical. Then the effects of 
the effects are imaginative and spiritual. New peace 
and fresh courage doubtless come from new insights 
of faith or new realizations of truth. But usually the 
insights of faith are enabled by the increased vitality 
which is the gift of some kind of form. And as for 
realization, it is realization, not just reality conceived 
or defined, but reality touched, tasted, mixed with. 
Realization is partly physical, a profound relation of 
form and content in which the harmony of form is 
always present. 

Moreover, forms in worship have always been 
used to vivify ideas and to rekindle ideals. They are 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 19 


vehicles of truth, vessels of communication, channels 
of deliverance. They have served not only as direct 
appeals to the senses, assisting the mind to develop its 
own thoughts, but also as symbols for the conveyance 
of thoughts. The idea without form is a timid tap- 
ping that does not rouse the sleepy householder; clad 
in good form it blows a bugle at the gates of the soul. 
Religion has always used abstract forms, proportions, 
shapes, colors, sounds, for the direct appeal to the 
senses. It has also set forth definite conceptions 
clothed in many kinds of symbolic form. 

These considerations are sufficient to indicate the 
meaning of the second of our suggestions, that in 
popular worship it is the formal element rather than 
the content which is chiefly the source of the vitality 
and the enjoyment of worship. 

Celebration is at once recollection and present joy. 
The content equipment of the celebrant is the whole 
structure of his ideas and the whole fabric of his toil 
recollected. These are brought together into har- 
mony, significance and worth in a moment of totality 
and realization. That realization is assisted by the 
formal modes devised to present it. All things are 
brought and offered and lost in the whole, there to be 
found again for what they are. The fruits of toil are 
devoted and eaten, so to speak, by the god and the 
god gives new fruition. All paths lead to the high joy 
of communion, and by the life and power of that 
communion any path may be ventured. Worship is 
the interruption of work to celebrate. Celebration is 
achieved in forms of praise and festivity and com- 


20 MODERN WORSHIP 


munion. The celebration of life, the praise of God, 
requires the most elevated of forms to be in harmony 
with the lofty character of the content. In that praise 
and that communion which constitute good worship 
are engendered the powers necessary for the renewal 
of good works. 

We should now be prepared to return to the ques- 
tions already raised about error and evil and ugliness 
if worship is to be regarded as the celebration of life. 

Respecting the question of truth and error, the im- 
mediate answer is that no other conception of worship 
so frees us from the dilemma of an ever changing 
mental content. To begin with, the thing celebrated 
is life itself, whole, complete, unlimited, not merely 
knowledge of life, not merely speculations about life, 
yet certainly not excluding either knowledge or 
speculation. The celebration of life attempts to in- 
clude all things. The celebrations of specific religion 
can least of all afford to be unmindful of error, not 
only the error of other faiths but the error inside its 
own faith. If in former times religion came declaring 
the finalities of its truth, today it comes admitting its 
intellectual incompleteness. There are many who find 
the essence of religion in their specific convictions, 
whose religious loyalty is a loyalty to certain concep- 
tions. These have often regarded the celebrations of 
religion as lacking in loyalty to truth, whereas the 
facts of the situation are just contrariwise. Those to 
whom religion is bound up with specific truths can- 
not be so loyal to truth itself. A passion for the truth 
is a necessity in the celebration of life. It is not a 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 21 


necessity for lesser celebrations. No one can come be- 
fore the altars of religion to celebrate life as a whole 
and there remember that the courts of truth have 
aught against him, without first becoming reconciled 
to the possibility of any revolutionizing conceptions 
whatsoever. The celebration of life means celebra- 
tion of truth seeking rather than of particular truths, 
though I believe that more often than is done, the 
institutions of religion should develop occasions of 
rejoicing over the major increments of human knowl- 
edge. 

Thus is overcome the antinomy of the heart and 
the head, of feeling and thinking. The religious cult, 
the festal ceremonies of religion have always been 
criticized for their unintellectual character. Today, 
no less than in former times, worship is set forth as 
subjective and hedonistic, as a delicious retreat from 
reality, unstable and shifting upon the ever uneasy 
sands of the emotions. It.is accused of fascination and 
hypnosis, dulling the mental interest. If our study of 
the influence of form, however, means anything, its 
influence is precisely the opposite. By perverse and 
unworthy manipulation, forms may be used as entice- 
ments away from intellectual adventure. Left to it- 
self, good form enhances vitality, enlarges the imagi- 
nation and fits the mind for the exercise of its highest 
power. 

The necessary intellectual assumptions of the reli- 
gious festival are not extensive. They may be dis- 
covered to be profound and far-reaching in the hands 
of the philosopher and theologian whose business it 


22 MODERN WORSHIP 


is to deal with them. As artists in worship, it is not 
our special concern to say what they are. Our concern 
is to take the findings of the thinker and do the best 
we can with them. It is not primarily our task to 
specify the events, whether fateful or providential, 
whether divine or human, that are to be celebrated, 
nor to define the nature of the Object of our devo- 
tions. It is rather our task to lead the worshiper into 
the presence of reality, into the presence of God, 
however these ultimates may be conceived. I am un- 
willing to admit that worship is nullified by any con- 
ception of reality. I am willing to admit that some 
conceptions of existence render worship extremely 
difficult and make an almost superhuman demand 
upon the courage of man to sustain his life. The chief 
concern of the celebrant is that nothing be omitted. 
Religion is the all comprehending category, and wor- 
ship cannot leave out of its account any of the great 
certitudes of the mind or any of the great possibili- 
ties of speculation. To suggest that man cannot wor- 
ship at all or celebrate his life with high satisfaction 
unless committed to this or that particular conception 
of reality is to yield at once to unmitigated despair. 
On the other hand, to weave into his celebrations ever 
fresh formulations of truth is artistically a very diffi- 
cult undertaking. But it is not an impossible under- 
taking, and there is no honorable escape from the 
charge of subjectivity and retreat if it be not at- 
tempted. 

As to the question of good and evil, again the an- 
swer is involved in the all comprehending character 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 23 


of the celebration of life. How can life be praised 
and celebrated when life as a whole includes pain, 
darkness and cold, injustice and sin and wrong? If 
religion cannot afford to exclude the remembrance of 
error, much less can it forget the prevalence of evil. 
Just here is the brave and daring paradox of Chris- 
tianity, that in the same breath it remembers evil and 
calls the remembrance the celebration of the Lord’s 
supper. The chief rite of Christendom is a recollec- 
tion of tragedy, but the man who conducts it is not 
referred to as the president or the chairman but as the 
celebrant. 

When a Christian betakes himself to worship, at 
the very heart of his faith is a symbol of the worst 
that man could do to his brother man. The central 
celebration of Christianity plunges at once to the 
dregs. It remembers not brightness and good fortune 
but defeat and disaster. With magnificent courage it 
determines to ignore nothing, but to face all the facts, 
including the worst facts of human existence. He 
celebrates life as a whole not because it is all good, 
but because much of it is good and he is determined 
to make good of the rest. The Eucharist is a great 
celebration because it is a great sacrament of dedica- 
tion. The central symbol of Christianity is not a re- 
minder of the kindly forces of nature nor the normal 
fortunes of man but of defeat turned into victory, of 
pain transformed into benefit, of evil overcome with 
good. If there is a permanent validation of the cross, 
and a mighty wholesome health in its retention 
amongst the symbols of religion, it is its unceasing 


FIGNER RE aniaG ROOM 
eEeTh Mit NARY, 

PRINC ETO ON. “SER 

\. PRINCETON, Ns dn / 


24. MODERN WORSHIP 


demand for facing all the facts of life, its perpetual 
call to ignore nothing, its glorious assertion that hap- 
piness is possible, yet not possible without righteous- 
ness and high purpose and good will. Indeed, perhaps 
the Christian is the only one who can celebrate life, 
precisely because he does celebrate all of it. 

Thus is overcome the antinomy of faith and works, 
culture and morals. The festival, the celebration, the 
religious cult, has always been accused of unmorality, 
of enjoyment without righteousness. But if the reli- 
gious celebration upgathers into itself the recollection 
of the practical life, including all that needs correc- 
tion or reform, the vitality which it engenders not 
only assists in the comprehension of the right but also 
supplies energy to perform it. 

Those phases of life which are celebrated because 
they are good and the evils of life which need correc- 
tion because they are bad need from time to time new 
definition. Into the great abiding forms of the cele- 
bration must be put the ever changing content of the 
moral situation. Protestantism has of course always 
had and will continue to have the sermon as the great 
vehicle of moral urgence and in so far as the sermon 
is included in the apparatus of worship it assists in 
the perpetual process of stimulating ethical thought 
and purpose. Yet Protestantism has not yet succeeded 
in giving sufficient recognition to ethics in its devo- 
tions, in its worship more properly so called. The 
prayers of Dr. Rauschenbusch, some new litanies of 
labor and other experiments have been made. These 
efforts to specify the ever changing moral content of 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 25 


religion need to be pursued with greater variety and 
intensity. I shall hope to make later one or two defi- 
nite suggestions for the symbolic teaching of ethics 
possible to the church of the future. 

There remains the question of beauty and ugliness, 
which like the others finds its solution in the compre- 
hensive character of worship. The celebration is itself 
a work of art, but the things it selects for remem- 
brance and praise are the lovely things of common 
life. And because the memory of the religious cele- 
bration is exceeding long, it turns all nobility into 
beauty and declares that every life may be beautiful, 
transcending success and defeat. 


Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, 
And in their death they were not divided: 


Not divided from their beauty as well as from each 
other. In the communion of saints, there is beauty 
for each and all. 

Thus is overcome the antinomy of retreat and as- 
sociation, of work and play. Festal religion has been 
accused of offering an anodyne, a false respite from 
the prevailing sordidness of life. In this criticism, of 
course, all the other arts must share as well as the art 
of worship. But what are the arts? Every normal man 
seems to be endowed with an indestructible urge of 
creativity, an unceasing desire for the establishment 
of the work of his hands. The arts have been defined 
by some as a field where man might more easily 
achieve creative success than in the rougher and less 
malleable stuff of industrial and political life. Yet 


26 MODERN WORSHIP 


here also the assumptions of worship are far-reach- 
ing. If, in the harmonies of worship, an ideal beauty 
of all things is envisioned, that harmony is a presage 
and promise of realization in actuality. Here also 
Protestantism needs new experiments in the way of 
artistic encouragement to this process of actualization. 
It should be possible in the celebrations of religion to 
give to men not an anodyne for the monotony of 
daily toil, but some clear comprehension of what it is 
that that daily toil contributes to the present necessi- 
ties and the coming perfection of society, and to the 
transformation of all sordid things into a beautiful 
world. 

In this connection, it must not be forgotten that a 
large proportion of men do not find their daily toil 
ugly or irksome. Not the least hearty of the celebra- 
tions that go on amongst us are those of commerce 
and industry. In my own city many of its inhabitants 
meet together frequently for the celebration of their 
commercial affairs. Their hearts are in their work and 
its achievements. It is almost their religion. All this 
commercial festivity should be brought inside the 
great frame of public worship, where its commend- 
able qualities might be given recognition and sanction 
but where also its isolation and injustice might find 
the correction of a larger reference, wider outlook 
and purer motive. 

The beauty of holiness is the beauty of that which 
is uncommon and sacred, discovered in retreat and 
sanctuary, but it is also the beauty of sharing toils and 
responsibilities in the associations of common and sec- 


RELIGION AS CELEBRATION 27 


ular life. The desire for beauty, the impulse to make 
things beautiful is afforded range and opportunity to 
all men as they celebrate on holy days and as they do 
on other days that which is worthy of celebration. 

If religion then be the celebration of life, it com- 
prises and completes all kinds of goods, mental and 
moral and aesthetic, human and divine. It corrects the 
partiality of all categories, it is itself the compre- 
hending category. Whatever a man celebrates is in a 
sense his religion, yet it is usually a very meager re- 
ligion unless it rises to the qualities of the religious 
category so recognized. Celebration must be brought 
to consciousness and universality before it becomes 
true religion. 

On the one hand, thinker and philanthropist and 
aesthete suffer shortage and lack without the fullness 
which is the celebration of all things. The many 
things of each need to be brought into association with 
the many things of the others. And not only that, for 
celebration is not merely the recollection of many 
good things, it is the discovery of the total signifi- 
cance of those things. It is the praise of that whole- 
ness of life which they comprise, that One which 
alone is completely good. Worship as celebration is 
the great form of collectivity and of composition. 

But worship, on the other hand, offers no fixed 
content of its own. Its content is all that is brought to 
it. What we desire as churchmen today is not to foist 
upon thinker or doer or artist any outworn concepts 
or projects defined by the past alone, but to fill the 


28 MODERN WORSHIP 


abiding form of our celebration with the new content 
of every man’s good thoughts and good deeds. 

Is this then the Object of worship, the stuff of 
common life? Is this God? No, not yet at least. One 
brings all his goods to the temple, but there is a door 
of leaving behind, where he must be rid of his many 
goods as he desires to be rid of his many bads, if he is 
to find the one supreme Good. Is the temple then 
stuffed with all his worldly goods? Yes, and with the 
goods of all other men, and the immeasurable goods 
that are where no man is. Here are the corded bales 
of every man’s good and the shards and ashes of 
every man’s bad. Here is all in the world that he has 
loved and all that he has ignored. He comes to be rid 
of the world and to find God. But here he finds all 
the world he has left behind—and behold! it is God. 


CHAPTER II 


Liturgical Form 


Science, then, returns to art its stuff, criticized, corrected, 
and substantially bettered. This is precisely what modern 
theology should do for modern worship. The idea-substance 
of our services of worship should be far better for its criti- 
cism at the hand of the natural, the historical, the psycho- 
logical, and the social sciences. Our present ineffectualness 
in worship, however, lies in our failure to reaffirm the tem- 
per and technique of the artist. We are too often content 
with a drastically criticized body of religious truth. We do 
not realize that this body of truth must be forever recreated 
in new, significant forms. 


WILLarRD L. SPERRY 


II. 


SSUMING that worship is an art, it must have 
its technique of form as any other art. The 
limits of our time will not permit a defense of the as- 
sumption, nor a proper discussion of informal modes 
of worship, if indeed there can be such a thing as in- 
formal worship. Certainly good form in worship is 
often destroyed by informalities. Most of the objec- 
tions to form in worship are due to misconceptions of 
form. It is our present purpose to study briefly the 
laws of form in the arts generally, and notice their 
application to the particular art of worship. 
Undoubtedly, the first canon of the arts is single- 
ness, wholeness, unity. Whatever is not composed 
into some kind of integrity is not a work of art. 
Whatever cannot be managed or relegated to a posi- 
tion of proper contribution must be omitted from the 
work of art. This does not mean that the several 
parts are to be overwhelmed by the dominating 
modes of unification. Yet no parts can be so much 
emphasized as to weaken the unity of the whole. Nor 
can greatly dissimilar parts be brought together in 
one work unless they are adequately subordinated in 
the scheme of the whole, as, for instance, the inclu- 
sion of both a formal garden and a wild tanglewood 
in the same landscape composition or the inclusion of 
read prayers and free prayers in the same service of 
worship. If the total design is sufficiently extensive, 
such opposites can be managed, though not in juxta- 
position. Our chance illustration is as good a point as 


32 MODERN WORSHIP 


any from which to view the far-reaching implications 
of this canon of unity. The desire for unity is one of 
the most elemental of human desires, unity of self 
and unity in the world. There is a profound if simple 
pleasure in the easy apprehension of the unity of a 
porcelain bowl or a brief melody. That satisfaction is 
increased many fold by the apprehension of the com- 
prehending unity which organizes into a single whole 
the many parts and intricate relations of a great sym- 
phony or a Gothic cathedral. The logic of this desire 
has no limits. It becomes at last the grand conviction 
that there is an ideal unity of all things, and the high 
moral purpose to realize it. How altogether necessary 
is this law of unity for the art of worship. Whatever 
disturbs the unity’ of liturgic form is essentially a 
moral disturbance. Whatever contributes to the unity 
of that form assists the apprehension of the ultimate 
union which is religion itself. 

There are many artistic methods for achieving this 
quality of integrity and many ways of failing to 
achieve it. One of the most frequent disturbances of 
unity in worship is the personal intrusion of the min- 
ister, shifting the attention of the worshipers from 
the great Object to the physical setting of the time 
and place. There is a type of worship, the old-fash- 
ioned prayer meeting, where the personal direction 
of the leader is itself a mode of unification. Yet those 
whom I remember as most helpful leaders in such 
meetings were men who, when the climax of spiritual 
value was reached, offered their direction in most 
skillfully impersonal ways. In the normal public 


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LITURGICAL FORM 33 


worship of the Sunday service, the minister should 
no more interpose a personal note than an actor 
should address a personal remark to the audience in 


the midst of a play. Another common break-up of « 


unity is occasioned by a sudden change in the tone or 
style of a service, just as distracting as would be the 
telling of a story in two or three dialects. 

In order to secure unity for the ordinary public 
service of worship, the parts of the service must each 
fall into its proper place in some total design, the 
movement must be uninterrupted, and some selected 
style or tone maintained. Oftentimes certain repetitive 
phrases or responses assist the unity of a liturgy in 
much the same way as the repetition of the same kind 
of arch or window in a building or the same color re- 
peated in the furnishings of a drawing-room. It is of 
course obvious that unity in theme or content is neces- 
sary in worship as in any other art. This does not 
necessarily involve the inclusion of the sermon in the 
unity of the worship theme, though in general I be- 
lieve it to be desirable. It is less obvious and not so 
easy to devise harmony between the form and the 
content. Forms suitable for the celebration of a foot- 
ball victory are not adequate for worship. Offenses 
against this requirement are far more frequent than 
they should be. A style of service does not need to be 
stilted or cold or artificial in order to be properly 
dignified and elevated in tone. We do not want any 
forms that are not the genuine expressions of a spirit. 
Such forms are formalistic. Forms are hollow mock- 
eries unless they have been wrought out of profound 


34 MODERN WORSHIP 


realities, needs and desires, convictions and joys. Yet 
the great realities are only vivid for us as they are 
bodied forth in great forms. In the highest art, form 
and content are so wedded and welded into one that 
both are essential to the expression, as, for instance, 
in the twenty-third Psalm, the content could not exist 
for us in the way it does without the incomparable 
form which presents it. Without any attempt fully to 
cover the methods and modes of unity, I suggest only 
so much as an indication of its importance. 

The next law of form in the arts is that of move- 
ment. The song, the dance, the drama, the novel, 
these all move. A large proportion of works in the 
pictorial and plastic arts indicate movement, and ac- 
tually set up tendencies of motion in the physical or- 
ganism of the beholder. It would seem that.a service 
of worship should move. It must not be.a static but a 
flowing thing. The primary movement, is in the 
hearts of the worshipers themselves. If the service 
does not move them they must furnish the movement 
themselves, and if there be no motion of the spirit 
amongst the people, the service cannot move others. 
Over the proscenium arch of one of our theaters ‘is 
inscribed the wholesome admonition: “You your- 
selves must set flame to the fagots which you have 
brought.” But it is difficult for the worshiper to sus- 
tain the movement of worship if the forms of ex- 
pression do not move with his experience. Many 
services are not prepared to afford movement of ex- 
pression. They have no inevitable sequence. They 
reach forth to no climax. They constitute a series of 


LITURGICAL FORM 35 


separate parts, not a flowing stream of vital life. 
Various kinds of things interrupt the movement of 
worship and their opposites sustain it. Awkwardness 
in following the service disturbs the movement. If, 
for instance, the people are standing for a hymn and 
are obliged to remain standing while finding their 
places for a reading, this is an ill-managed point in 
the service and breaks its continuity. Points of transi- 
tion from one part to another are often abruptly 
made and check the movement. They may be 
smoothly made and add momentum to the service. 
An anthem presented without transitional prepara- 
tion becomes a concert number. The same work pre- 
ceded by preparatory versicles becomes the expres- 
sion of the whole body of worshipers. Sometimes the 
organ by a brief graduating interlude can effect an 
important transition from one part to another. Espe- 
cially lengthened parts tend to interrupt the flow of 
movement. Otherwise excellent music often does 
this, while a brief period of silence does not. Changes 
in the style of the material or the manner of its pres- 
entation interrupt the movement of worship. Only a 
certain discipline of codperation between minister, 
choristers and congregation can develop and carry 
forward to its full cycle that grandeur of movement 
which is possible where there is a genuine desire for 
the highest worship. 

Another almost universal element of form in the 
arts is that of rhythm, which is a form of actual or 
suggested motion. Poetry, music and dancing are es- 
sentially rhythmic arts. The colonnades or the fenes- 


36 MODERN WORSHIP 


tration of a noble building make a rhythmic appeal. 
Rhythm is one of the most exciting and hence enliv- 
ening influences. Antiphonal singing and responsive 
readings are primitive forms of rhythm, and are used 
in most services of worship largely for that reason. 
The processional march is valuable for its rhythmic 
effect. Far more profound and important than these 
primitive forms of rhythm is the larger rhythm of 
alternation in worship, the forth and back swing of 
the attention from the One to the many, from the 
self to God. This alternation should find ample op- 
portunity of expression in the forms of the service. 
It is not an easy thing to accomplish, but unquestion- 
ably one of the necessities for adequate expression in 
worship. For the more quiet and intimate occasions of 
worship, it is naturally achieved by the simple direc- 
tion of the service. For larger numbers of people, the 
personal method breaks the movement and hence the 
rhythm. For the full public service, forms are re- 
quired which have larger carrying power. From one 
point of view, the whole service of worship is one of 
the great poles of the alternating life, the other being 
the workaday world. But as there may be worship in 
work so there must be a remembrance of work in 
worship. Those outer forms and usages in the service 
of worship which emphasize the interplay of life be- 
tween these two great foci of the particular and the 
universal are of prime importance in the realization 
of these great relations. 

The selection and development of style is one of 
the formal necessities in all the arts. Every utterance 


LITURGICAL FORM 37 


which has effective power of communication is com- 
posed in some distinctive style. The form of lan- 
guage in written or spoken address may be restrained 
or florid, prosaic or poetic, using the diction of the 
street or developing the more precious phraseology 
of the sophisticated. Out of the practical and cultural 
life of peoples as they have developed and reached 
maturity have come successively the great architec- 
tural styles. In the drama of the day we speak of cer- 
tain presentations as being highly stylized. By a com- 
bined process of elimination and caricature, scenes 
and figures are set before us not in realistic but in sig- 
nificant form. Style thus emphasizes the dominating 
qualities of persons or of movements or of peoples. 
Style is never the product of weak or spineless char- 
acter. In the lesser arts it represents personal distinc- 
tion. In the grander arts it represents maturity and 
societal integration. In all the arts, style is one of the 
elements which sustains the aesthetic experience. It 
takes the mind out of its accustomed channels and 
preoccupations and prejudices and holds it aloof 
from these where its judgments may be exercised in 
the most free and untrammeled manner. It produces 
the artistic effect of distance by which alone life may 
be surveyed dispassionately. It takes us momentarily 
away from private and particular interests to a posi- 
tion where all things can be estimated without the 
warping concern for their personal bearings. It is one 
of the most perplexing of the formal problems of 
worship today. One of the very attitudes which wor- 
ship is designed to accomplish is this achievement of 


38 MODERN WORSHIP 


aloofness and freedom which the arts effect in part by 
success of style. Our practical dilemma is the problem 
of the old and the new in the content of worship. If 
we use the thoughts of today in the language of every 
day, how shall we achieve the necessary artistic dis- 
tance, the desired religious elevation? If we retain 
the higher tone of ancient utterances, how shall we 
be true to our own thoughts and latest revelations? I 
am convinced that the services of worship which do 
not retain anything of the magnificent heritage of 
devotional utterance from the past do not possess the 
elevation of style necessary to call forth the experi- 
ence of worship. The familiar and more or less an- 
cient phraseology succeeds where newer and fresher 
formulations fail. The reasons are simple. A form of 
utterance which has become archaic conducts us im- 
mediately away from the world of present interests 
and images. It assists the process of elimination and 
of withdrawal from the present time and place. It 
swiftly cuts away the more obtruding impressions and 
thus serves the process of concentration. Besides this, 
it begins the positive process of religious imagina- 
tion. It suggests images with which former religious 
experience has been connected and reminds us that we 
are called to worship a reality that has been operative 
hitherto and that ever more shall be. The new for- 
mulations tend to occupy the mind with conceptions 
and thus to obscure for the moment that larger com- 
prehending mystic awareness and realization which is 
worship itself. Yet many ancient formulations of 
faith or devotional utterances are burdened with too 


LITURGICAL FORM 39 


much out-worn intellectual content. If this is the case 
for particular worshipers, the sense effect of the ut- 
terance is nullified. A very practical problem of 
every minister is that of selecting from the materials 
of the past those treasures which are least burdened 
with abandoned concepts. There are of course those 
who would seem to be too easily offended by the con- 
tent of ancient materials who need the general correc- 
tive of poetry for their overly prosaic temperament. 

In a general way, the proper position for the older 
materials of worship and the archaic style is in the 
opening parts of the service. As the experience of 
worship moves on, it must return to the life of today, 
practical life and intellectual life and the whole mass 
of present interests and affairs. The service must 
make place for the actual concerns of people what- 
ever their character. There are no ancient words to 
express all these concerns. They must be phrased in 
new formulations. Although the sermon is the best 
opportunity for this, the general service of worship 
will become remote and unreal if it does not also in- 
clude some of these new elements. One of the hope- 
ful signs of the day is the increasing tendency to in- 
troduce into services of worship suitable extra-Biblical 
materials. Only good taste and patient experiment 
can make this usage successful. Some churches use for 
responsive readings selections from modern moral 
and religious writings or material prepared by the 
minister himself. This is very difficult because the 
difference in style is usually noticeable and hence dis- 
tracting. It is questionable also because the responsive 


40 MODERN WORSHIP 


reading is a rhythmic exercise used chiefly for its 
sense appeal and imaginative stimulus rather than be- 
cause of its content value. A less difficult usage of 
new material is the introduction of a second or sub- 
stitute scripture reading taken from modern sources. 
This will often give to a brief service a freshness that 
is both delightful and helpful. In some ways, also, 
an original litany comprised of a content of modern 
concerns, with brief responses by the people, is far 
less dificult from the point of view of the demands 
of style than the responsive reading. If there are 
those who desire for their religious meetings the ex- 
pression of modern concepts only, they will find it 
very difficult to engage in worship at all. They may 
develop many interesting ideas, possibly true and im- 
portant ideas, and many useful values in such a meet- 
ing, but they can hardly develop the distinctly reli- 
gious experience, that withdrawal from the many 
which seeks to apprehend the One, that celebration of 
all things, that complete experience which is worship 
itself. 

We must turn to a more complex element in all 
the arts, the element of design. Every work of art 
has some pattern or design, a maj or arrangement of 
space, a major marking off of time or sound, covering 
the entire extent of the work. The design may be a 
simple symmetry, as in a cup, or it may be composed 
of intricate patterns in more than one medium over- 
laid and interwoven, yet as a whole harmonized to- 
gether. The dancers trace figures upon the floor, 
fashion innumerable designs in posture and weave in- 


LITURGICAL FORM 41 


tricate patterns of repetitive motion. Some paintings 
have a major design of color differing from, yet har- 
monious with, the design that is composed by the ar- 
rangement of the objects depicted. There might be 
said to be a pattern of comedy and a pattern of 
tragedy. A so-called grand opera is a composite de- 
sign involving the lesser patterns of sound and color 
and movement woven into the grander dramatic de- 
sign. Incidentally, what is called grand opera is often 
not successful in design. Sometimes the theme uti- 
lized is not worthy of the scale of pattern attempted. 
The resulting work may offer many charming parts 
but breaks down as a whole. The technician in the 
arts looks at once for the pattern. As a technician his 
interest in content is subordinated to his interest in 
design. The power of pattern is a manifold one. It is 
essential to the individuation of parts without which 
the work becomes barren. It is one of the main re- 
sources for developing unified experience and one of 
the major factors in sustaining the experience. The 
satisfaction in pattern merges into the desire to create 
patterns until at last nothing will be omitted from a 
total design of life. It is thus a symbol of totality, an 
immediate assistance to the apprehension of the one- 
ness of all things. 

What is the pattern of worship? How shall we dis- 
cover the typical design which will compose and rep- 
resent the experience we desire to express and so to 
reproduce for ourselves and others? Many answers 
have been made to this question, although not always 
under the form of the question of pattern. The sim- 


42 MODERN WORSHIP 


plest of the worship designs is the twofold or bal- 
anced pattern of initiation and response. According to 
this view, God calls to man and man answers to God. 
It conceives of worship as a real event in which there 
is the actual initiating activity of God and the re- 
sponding activity of man. The conception of worship 
generally held amongst the Lutheran churches fol- 
lows this simple and powerful description. Through- 
out the whole service of worship, in this Lutheran 
view, there are two alternating elements, the sacra- 
mental and the sacrificial, the grace of God and the 
offering of man. Always in the service, the action of 
the minister is of this twofold order. Now he stands 
for God before the people administering a sacrament. 
Again he stands for the people before God offering a 
sacrifice. The service is a kind of conversation be- 
tween man and God. Some have elaborated this de- 
sign by describing the episodes of the action of God 
and by analyzing the elements of the response of 
man according to the laws of attention. It is possible 
that this account of worship is true and that no more 
valid pattern of worship than this can be discovered. 
Yet it is too simple to express sufficiently some of the 
important elements in the experience. 

Various tripartite patterns of worship have been 
suggested. Professor Buckham’* has indicated a pat- 
tern following closely the ancient categories of truth, 
beauty and goodness. The three elements of worship 
in his analysis are: The Direct Individual Experience 
of Truth; The Culture of the Soul by Contempla- 


1 John Wright Buckham, Religion as Experience, p. 105. 


Li auURGIGALY fb ORM 43 


tion; and The Dedication of the Self in Love. Cer- 
tainly worship includes these great phases. Some will 
feel, however, that just this mode of arranging them 
does not follow the normal order of the experience 
of worship, and also that it is slightly confusing in its 
categorical outline. According to our view it is not 
truth but reality which is touched in the religious ex- 
perience. The experience may be fostered by the 
presentation of statements of truth and in turn it may 
clarify the truth, but it is itself the apprehension of 
reality. Professor Buckham has elsewhere said the 
same thing. The pattern of worship suggested by 
Dean Sperry’ is also a tripartite or triangular design. 
According to some of the terms he has used in de- 
scribing it, it appears to be suggested by a philosophic 
interest in that it consists of thesis, antithesis and syn- 
thesis. As thesis, there is the Vision of Reality. The 
antithesis is the Contrasting Human Situation. These 
are resolved in a synthesis of New Comprehension, 
including Rededication. It will be observed at once 
that the elements of the experience here suggested 
are in general agreement with the other threefold 
pattern. Probably Professor Buckham would admit a 
sense of a contrasting human situation and new com- 
prehension as a part of the cultivation of the spirit by 
contemplation. Both these patterns, however, make 
no reference at all to a phase of the experience which 
to my own mind is one of its most important aspects, 
its vitality. In other statements Dean Sperry has in- 
cluded it. But in this formal statement of the pattern 


1 Willard L. Sperry, Reality in Worship, p. 282. 


44. MODERN WORSHIP 


of worship he has been obliged to omit one important 
matter and also to include two distinct elements in 
the third category in order to compress the descrip- 
tion into this threefold form. Similar to these pat- 
terns is one suggested by Professor Brightman,’ com- 
prising Contemplation, Revelation, Communion and 
Fruition. 

If the patterns of Buckham and Sperry have an 
intellectual cast of description, that of Hartshorne is 
derived from the moral interest. Dr. Hartshorne* 
suggests a clearly defined pattern of worship includ- 
ing five points. There is first, Review of what has 
taken place, either deliberate or forced; secondly, At- 
tention to what might have taken place; thirdly, Re- 
evaluation of the past act by contrasting with the 
ideal and consequently regret that what might have 
been was not, accompanied by feelings of strain and 
estrangement; fourthly, if Regret, then Identifica- 
tion with the ideal, with the point of view of God, 
with a consequent sense of forgiveness or feeling of 
worth through this identification; fifthly, Recovery 
or Achievement of peace, release, sense of fellowship 
with God, unity with mankind, at-one-ness with the 
universe. Here are, in somewhat differing form, the 
same marks of the experience we are seeking to de- 
scribe. To my thought, however, the normal experi- 
ence begins by the turn of attention to the universal 
rather than to the particular. Human beings are often 

1 Edgar S. Brightman, Religious Values, pp. 180-184. 


? Hugh Hartshorne, Yale Divinity News, Vol. XXII, No. 4, May, 
1926. 


LITURGICAL FORM 45 


driven to the search for God by their own mistakes 
and Sins, that is, by the pressure of particulars. Yet 
even in critical situations it is some forgotten ideal 
remembered which calls attention to the mistake or 
wrong. In the more everyday experience of life, it is 
not so much the flagrant wrong as it is the lower good 
which needs correction, and this again is recognized 
as lower good only by the vision of some higher 
good. In addition to this, the pattern suggested by 
Dr. Hartshorne is not an easy one to follow in the 
order of service. It would be difficult to construct a 
service of worship composed of elements expressive 
of the several stages of experience as he has outlined 
them. 

At this point it is necessary to state more explicitly 
a principle which we have been assuming in our brief 
introduction to the problem of design in the art of 
worship. The principle is this, that the outer form of 
the exercise of worship should parallel the inner or- 
der of the experience of worship. With this principle 
both Sperry and Hartshorne as well as others are in 
agreement. If the principle be a correct one the first 
task of the artist in worship is to analyze the experi- 
ence. It may be opposed to this suggestion that there 
is no typical experience of worship, that the many va- 
rieties of religious experience cannot be reduced to 
one general norm. How can the good and the bad, 
the fortunate and the unfortunate, the souls at peace 
and the spirits distracted, the religious and the irre- 
ligious, find in any one pattern the solution for their 
situation? Without discussing the question, I only ex- 


46 MODERN WORSHIP 


press my own view that in the main there is a compre- 
hending normal experience which covers all these 
major differences. However varied the situation of 
the worshipers in mind, body or estate, however 
varied the approaches, whether mental or emotional 
or moral, the essential psychology of the experience 
is identical. 

In a previous discussion* I have suggested a five- 
part pattern developing through the elements of 
Vision, Humility, Vitality, Illumination and Dedi- 
cation. I am now inclined to suggest a design of seven 
elements, preceded by a kind of introduction or pro- 
logue. In addition to this, may I remind you of the 
suggestion made a moment since that sometimes in 
the art of painting, a design composed of the arrange- 
ment of objects in space is overlaid by another design 
formed by an arrangement of colors, or of light and 
shadow. In somewhat analogous fashion this pattern 
of elements in the experience of worship is overlaid 
and harmonized with the ever present alternating 
rhythm of attention to the One and the many which 
is the principal character of the twofold pattern al- 
ready noticed. 

It is difficult to give expression in the formal lit- 
urgy to the problem of personal approach, although 
many services begin in this way. Every service which 
has a Call to Worship begins with the state of the 
worshiper in mind rather than by a presentation of 
divinity. This is one definite method of introduction 
to worship. In the Roman missal the question of ap- 


1 Art and Religion, Chapter XV. 


LITURGICAL FORM 47 


proach takes the form of an expressed purpose to 
worship, 


I will go to the altar of God. 


This note of expectancy and purpose is reéchoed 
throughout the first responsals in the Ordinary of the 
mass. 


Send forth thy light and thy truth: 

They have conducted me and brought me unto thy holy hill, 
and into thy tabernacles. 

To thee, O God, my God, I will give praise upon the harp. 

I will go in to the altar of God; 

To God, who giveth joy to my youth. 


In the Anglican liturgy the opening sentences are for 
the most part of this preparatory character, followed 
by the call to repentance and later by the Venite. The 
Unitarian hymnal services each contain an exhorta- 
tion to worship. In all these and others, there is a 
notable recognition of this preparatory element and 
definite liturgical expression of the state of the wor- 
shiper in his approach toward God. I confess that I 
have not myself adopted any of these usages, nor 
found any other satisfactory method of taking this 
element into account. I submit it to your attention as 
a matter for thought and experiment, with one fur- 
ther question about it here. What can we do, either in 
the service of worship or by way of instruction con- 
cerning worship, to develop amongst religious people 
the attitude and practice of going to church not to 
hear or to receive, but to pay their vows to the Most 
High? It is conceivable that a considerable change in 


48 MODERN WORSHIP 


worship might follow if there were many men who 
were accustomed to say in their own hearts, Today I 
will go to the house of God to offer prayers and 
thanksgivings and celebrate the goodness of life in 
Him. 

Having come to the house of God, what the wor- 
shiper most desires is the sense of God, an awareness 
of all things. He desires to pass through a door-of- 
leaving-behind that he may have release from mani- 
foldness and confusion, cares and sins, perplexities, 
fatigues and affairs. He desires to find solution and 
integrity, wholeness and strength, a vision of the in- 
effable and the divine. The service of worship must 
assist this adventure, must present the reality and 
mediate’ the divine. Some presentation the usual serv- 
ice attempts to make. In most forms of service there 
are invocations, doxologies, glorias, responsive read- 
ings and other declarative elements. Through these 
the presence of divinity is invoked or celebrated, and 
by these the worshiper is assisted to the vision he has 
come to achieve and to the service he has come to 
offer. In early Christian worship, the ancient psalms 
were sung at the opening part of the service. A ves- 
tige of this usage is found in the Introit of the old 
liturgy. In a considerable number of churches today 
the Introit has been revived and developed into an- 
tiphonal responses between minister and choir as the 
opening part of the service. This usage serves at once 
several important functions both of form and con- 
tent. As to content, it is the presentative element, the 
declaration of the divine life which the worshiper has 


LITURGICAL FORM 49 


come to find, and it is itself the service of God going 
on in the sanctuary to which the worshiper has come 
to offer his praise. In form, it is the preliminary an- 
nouncement of the theme of the day, and the initial 
rhythmic movement of the liturgy, binding together 
minister and choristers as participants, not in a pro- 
gram, but in divine service. 

The awareness of magnitude is followed by the 
sense of diminution. The vision of high and holy di- 
vinity reveals to the worshiper his faltering and fail- 
ing humanity. In the presence of excellence of char- 
acter or of achievement, ordinary accomplishments 
are put to shame. Superior finish and grace belittle 
slovenly work and careless temper. The first reaction 
to the vision of God is the spirit of humility in man. 
This is the low point in the experience of worship. It 
is the first backward swing of the great pendulum of 
attention. The feeling of contrast may take a variety 
of forms. It may be a sharp and swift stiffening to 
the emulation of some excellence of technique, so 
brief that the low point of self-condemnation in- 
volved is almost unnoticed. But the low point is 
there. It may be definite acknowledgment of sin and 
a spirit of contrition continued for hours or days. It 
may be a form of discouragement. I believe that at 
times it is a form of rebellion, an angry and baffled 
recognition of lesser powers and talents. In whatever 
form, this low point of contrast is a normal and often 
intense stage in the experience of worship. This ele- 
ment in the experience has always had recognition in 
services of worship. The Confiteor, the Kyrie Eleison, 


50 MODERN WORSHIP 


the Prayer of General Confession, these are near the 
beginning of the liturgies precisely because the con- 
trition and need which they confess closely follow the 
beginning of the experience. Many modern services 
of worship have omitted recognition of this great 
factor. That it should be restored in one form or an- 
other is beyond peradventure the counsel of good 
aesthetics, good morals and good psychology alike. 
Swiftly following upon belittlement comes its op- 
posite. Forth again the great pendulum swings, out 
of the world of frustration and weakness into the 
tides of full and complete life. An enhancement of 
vitality is the testimony of all the great mystics. It is 
here especially that the sensuous influence of form in 
the arts comes to assist the experience of worship. 
The rhythms of form beat like waves upon the shores 
of our physical being and quite literally increase all 
the physical powers. If they convey, meanwhile, 
great significations of being, of reality, of God, the 
enlivened imagination of the worshiper receives a 
great accretion of power. Not only is sin forgiven and 
weakness made strong, but even mediocre talent 
views a grander prospect of achievement as it recog- 
nizes the divine processes with which it may codperate 
and in which the labor of its hands may be estab- 
lished. This great element in the experience has al- 
ways found noble expression in the liturgies and at 
just this point. The Gloria in Excelsis is the ancient 
hymn following contrition and confession. Here the 
celebration of life rises to its supreme heights in 
praise and rejoicing for the floods of vitality capable 


LITURGICAL FORM 51 


of enduring all things and hoping all things and it- 
self performing many things. 

Then again the ceaseless rhythms of alternation 
move upon the worshiper in a process of recollection. 
The heightened imagination begins to operate in 
earthly scenes. Between the divine object and the 
eyes of the beholder moves an obtruding cloud of 
memory. Into the church comes the market place and 
all its toils, the home and all its cares, all hopes, inter- 
ests, projects and possibilities of life for review, esti- 
mate and judgment. If at the beginning of worship 
it was some recent wrong or the last defeat which 
bore down the worshiper to his low point, here there 
is a wider range, a fuller review, possibly covering a 
retrospect and forecast of many years and all their 
affairs. This is the place then in the service of wor- 
ship for the introduction of the major mental and 
moral content of worship. In prayers, litanies and 
scriptures, the total faith, history and hope of the 
worshiping community is intimated. By these exer- 
cises, the personal concerns of all sorts and conditions 
of men, the possibilities and potencies of persons and 
societies are voiced and given fresh interpretation in 
the divine light. 

This fresh interpretation is itself the recurring 
sense of divinity now experienced as illumination. 
From the point of view now attained, nothing looks 
the same. The materials are the same stubborn facts 
of nature and human nature, of hardship and desire, 
of duty and joy, but they are rearranged. Problems 
are clarified and desires purified. Responsibilities are 


52 MODERN WORSHIP 


accepted and wishes reordered. What seemed im- 
portant sinks in the scale, the great values emerge 
and are freshly cherished. Now we know what is 
worth while, now our timid loyalties are enlarged 
into overmastering convictions. This is therefore the 
place in the service for the expression of convictions. 
A creed is a statement of the great worths of life as 
we most highly conceive them. I am myself con- 
vinced of the great value in worship of some form of 
credo, recited together by all the people. In our own 
service of worship we use differing statements but 
surround them by an ascription and gloria sung by the 
congregation in order to emphasize and maintain the 
rhythm of the experience forth and back between the 
One and the many. 

Here the service moves rapidly to its conclusion, 
as does the experience. The celebration of life has 
voiced its happiness, attained its vitality and reviewed 
its component concerns up to this point of clarity re- 
specting its affairs. Now it must proceed to decision. 
Even a half-jealous desire for emulation contains a 
powerful urgence to creativity. How much more is 
the impulse to high performance kindled and speci- 
fied by the more pure and tested intimations de- 
veloped if such worship as we have sought to describe 
is successful. When the mind sees what it is right and 
best to do and the whole man is made more capacious 
to do it, the urgence to dedication is all but irre- 
sistible. The service of worship should afford oppor- 
tunity for this return to the practical world with a 


LITURGICAL FORM 53 


definite purpose by some exercise of self-offering. 
This is the acceptable sacrifice. 

There yet remains a final element which many will 
wish to include for the completion of the cycle of 
worship. Surely there should be at the end of such a 
supreme course of experience an integrity of being 
that is reconciliation and peace. This may find utter- 
ance in a simple benediction only. Possibly at times 
some broader expression might well be given as the 
final note in the symphony of themes which have 
been brought to their concluding harmony. 

The pattern of worship then which we have sug- 
gested is a composition of these seven elements— 
Vision, Humility, Vitality, Recollection, [lumina- 
tion, Dedication, Peace. This design of form is over- 
laid or intertwined by an ever present alternation, as 
of light and shadow, which sways the attention of the 
worshiper between things human and divine. The 
pattern thus has within itself unity and movement 
and rhythm. If these essential formal elements are 
utilized to convey a well-selected content of things 
new and old, they will constitute a service of worship, 
vivid and moving. 

Permit me, finally, a reminder of our initial study 
of celebration, that it disclosed a double character as 
joy and recollection. In the experience of the ordi- 
nary arts there is said to be no desire for action. This 
is true so far as the represented situation goes. In the 
theater one does not go upon the stage to take a hand 
in the situation. But I believe that the desire for ac- 


54 MODERN WORSHIP 


tion is there and that it is one of the most powerful 
of human impulses. In the imagination the repre- 
sented situation is often obscured by the recollected 
situation as the field of active expression. The im- 
pulse to creative action kindled by beauty is nowhere 
more vividly expressed than by the poet Keats. 


When I behold upon the night’s starr’d face 
Huge cloudy symbols of high romance 
And think that I may never live to trace 
Their shadows. . . . 


The supremacy of the art of worship is this, that the 
creative desires arising out of its vitality are given 
direction by the light of a fullness of recollected con- 
tent not supplied by anything short of religion. 







Sy ts 4 ry. js P | < ide er 
CHAPTER III TCT 


_ Liturgical Materials fr 


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Too often the church has not seen that provision for wor- 
ship is the chief thing it has to do. . . . To be creative 
means to introduce new values beyond those which men 
have heretofore recognized and to devise new forms of 
conduct different from those which the established social 
order and the prevailing arts and sciences prescribe. . . . It 
would seem that worship is one of the sources out of which 
new creations in the art of living arise. It is in worship that 
new paths open up; worship is the only suitable preparation 
for the greatest creative artistry in all the world, the art of 
reshaping the total vital process of living. 


Henry NExtson WIEMAN 


III. 


S we approach the selection of concrete materials 
for the service of worship, we face a dilemma 
which is perhaps peculiar to our own times. The 
situation is perplexing, yet it may turn out to be a pe- 
culiar opportunity. It happens that at the very mo- 
ment of a renewed evaluation of older liturgical uses 
and materials we are also pressed with the desire to 
express new concerns and aspirations. There has been 
of late a widespread increase in the use of materials 
taken from the traditional liturgies of the Christian 
church. There is at the same time the beginning of an 
effort to formulate for worship experiences and 
faiths widely divergent from anything expressed in 
traditional utterances. Curiously enough, the com- 
mon denominator in both these movements is liturgi- 
cal. Both tend to move away from the vagaries of 
individual and extemporaneous expression toward the 
use of definite forms. 

If this liturgic impulse had begun some fifty or 
seventy-five years ago, the problem would have been 
a less difficult one. It would be the problem of im- 
proving the forms without much necessary change of 
content. This is precisely what is going on today 
amongst churches not yet so much interested in the 
more liberal thought. Branches of the Lutheran 
church especially are doing very fine work artistically 
in the field of liturgics. They are reéstimating their 
own source books of worship, writing some excellent 
new music, and have published a beautiful new book 


58 MODERN WORSHIP 


of Common Service. The Methodists have repub- 
lished the Anglican service as modified by John Wes- 
ley. A Methodist superintendent of my acquaintance 
has conducted especially prepared services of worship 
both for the inspiration and instruction of the clergy 
of his district. The Disciples denomination has ap- 
pointed a commission which is actively promoting the 
adoption of carefully prepared services of worship. 
Far more extensive than these revivals is the in- 
creased use of short fixed parts in the services of many 
free churches. These are largely selections from tra- 
ditional liturgies. If we could be content with this 
movement for the improvement of forms only, the 
work of development might proceed without much 
mental complication. 

Meanwhile, however, there are many churches 
which desire on the one hand more noble forms of 
worship and on the other a large amount of fresh 
content. They wish to weave into the experience of 
religion as realized in worship those ideas and ideals 
which are live and animating today. Even apart from 
the thoughts of a scientific age and the reforms of a 
philanthropic age, speaking in religious terms only, 
there is a call for the expression of the newer and 
later revelations of divinity. Barring that which may 
be ephemeral, though it seem important now, there is 
undoubtedly much in the social outlook of present- 
day thinking which amply merits expression in forms 
of liturgical utterance. However difficult artistically 
it may be to do this, our worship will speedily fall 
into remoteness and unreality if we do not attempt 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 59 


to voice our own best thoughts and ideals. There are 
already a considerable number of free churches us- 
ing non-Biblical materials for scripture lessons. A 
smaller number have attempted a modern content 
for responsive readings. Very few have as yet gone 
very far in experimentation with musical settings of 
new materials. I shall hope in a moment to give some 
representative selections of such works. 

Whatever new advances we desire, however, can- 
not wisely displace the rich treasuries of devotion ac- 
cumulated in the history of our faith. The chief ob- 
jection to the old is intellectual. Yet this objection is 
often captious and short-sighted and not always so 
valid as the radical supposes. I have read a number of 
new expressions of the spiritual life which have been 
studiously careful to omit any mention of God. Yet 
they were fairly good descriptions of the conception 
of God held not only by many moderns but by many 
ancients also. Excepting on the frontier or amongst 
the ignorant generally religion has never defined God 
in such crude concepts as it is often accused of doing. 
The number of straw men set up in the world’s argu- 
mentation would seem scarcely to exceed the number 
of straw gods at which the less well-educated radicals 
have directed their shafts. Many religious men today 
have no intention of giving up the use of this majestic 
term for circumlocutions and vagaries, when they 
have been bred to fill the term with a content as 
subtle and competent as need be. The great liturgies 
of the church contain many wonderful passages in no 
important wise objectionable to the modern thinker. 


60 MODERN WORSHIP 


On the other hand, they contain expressions covering 
a vast field of human experience. As the plays of 
Shakespeare and the great frescoes of Giotto depict 
all sorts and conditions of men and many varieties of 
temper and outlook, so also the great liturgies. They 
are like Homer and Dante in the display of the infi- 
nite variety of human nature, need and aspiration. 
The devotional literature of Christendom is for the 
most part based upon a wise psychology hardly sur- 
passable. In addition to this, much of it is composed 
in a noble style and diction far superior to the literary 
competence of the average minister. 

There are many values to be derived from the use 
of prepared liturgical material. It is definite instead 
of vague, following the logic of the theme more ex- 
actly than the average extemporaneous utterance. In 
structure and climax it is commonly better than indi- 
vidual composition. On the whole it makes for 
brevity and pertinence in the devotional exercise. 

As already suggested, the use of the older and 
more stately material is especially valuable in those 
parts of the service which represent the divine side of 
the alternating rhythm of worship. The recollective 
parts of the service must express the concerns and in- 
terests of today, but those portions of the liturgy 
which lead the attention of the worshiper away from 
the many to the One require the noblest possible 
forms. Art critics today are placing a greatly en- 
hanced valuation on what are called the primitives as 
compared to the realists and naturalists in the history 
of painting. They are doing this for the same reasons 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 61 


that modern workers in the pictorial and plastic arts 
are using more sophisticated methods of elimination 
and simplicity. These moderns are seeking the same 
artistic values to be found in the primitives, values of 
concentration, remoteness and essential quality. It is 
because attention to the artistry of presentation in re- 
ligion has lagged behind the interest of cultivated 
people in the fine arts, that we do not understand 
these aesthetic principles. It would be unfortunate if 
the church should cast out some of its greatest treas- 
ures at the moment when the world of the arts is 
placing a fresh estimate of worth upon the very artis- 
tic qualities which they contain. 

The artist in worship needs therefore to be famil- 
iar with the chief source books of Christian devotion, 
especially with the great Eastern liturgies, the Ro- 
man missal and the English Book of Common 
Prayer. There are several books of collected services 
prepared for the use of free church bodies or of local 
parishes, some of which are to be had in the libraries 
of liturgics, and several anthologies of prayers an- 
cient and modern. I am more ready to suggest famil- 
iarity with these materials than I am to urge their use. 
The most of us bred to non-liturgical customs do not 
read prayers very well, even those of our own com- 
position. Much less can we combine successfully into 
one prayer extemporaneous and read portions. Often- 
times, however, an ancient or modern collect can be 
read by itself at some place in a service with great 
gain. I know an academic chapel service where this 
usage is observed with marked effect both in dignity 


62 MODERN WORSHIP 


and intellectual variety. A church which has passed 
some of the initial difficulties of transition to the 
more fixed forms of worship will be able to draw 
freely from the older materials if it desires to do so. 

Curiously enough, the parts of the historic litur- 
gies which have found most favor amongst the free 
churches are minor parts, the responsals or versicles. 
This is because our instinct toward improvement in 
worship has been correct in feeling after those mate- 
rial elements which would transform an order of 
worship from a program into a service, change it 
from a broken series, as of concert numbers, into an 
uninterrupted movement, as of a drama. The use of 
short versicles as transitional members binds the 
parts, effects the desired change in mood and gives 
the congregation more frequent participation. In a 
large number of free churches, for instance, just be- 
fore the first hymn of praise or the anthem, these an- 
cient responsals are said: 


O Lord, open Thou our lips, 

And our mouth shall show forth thy praise, 
Praise ye the Lord, 

The Lord’s name be praised. 


Another familiar group may precede the principal 
prayer. 
The Lord be with you, 
And with thy spirit. 
Lift up your hearts, 
We lift them up unto the Lord. 


It is no mere imitation for any church to revive the 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 63 


use of these materials, for in the bulk of Christen- 
dom they have never fallen into disuse. On the 
whole, these and some other such minor parts of the 
liturgy are the most universal. No other exact forms 
are found amongst so many divergent bodies of 
Christians. They thus represent the cohesion of 
Christianity in a remarkable degree. One might al- 
most say that they represent the continuity of the 
whole culture of the Western world as nearly as any 
other symbols. That cohesion and the unity of that 
culture are precious, and there are many men who 
‘ value new things, who yet have profound passion for 
the wholeness of the cultural life from which we 
have come, and a deep longing to promote the in- 
creasing unity they hope for it in the future. It is 
scarcely possible to overestimate the binding and con- 
nective force of a few simple words or formulas if 
they are actually used by bodies of people widely 
divergent in race, nationality and religious conviction. 
The Book of Common Prayer is one of the most pro- 
found of the cohesive forces in the British Empire. 
The Lord’s Prayer is perhaps the chief common 
usage of Christendom. Other things being equal, 
there is incalculable value not only to the unity of 
Christianity but also to the unity of the whole of 
Western culture, in maintaining such concrete expres- 
sions as have been pervasive in the past and bid fair 
to retain general acceptability. It is true that many 
are not much moved by historic sentiments nor much 
aware of the fateful entities of what is vaguely called 
Western culture. But some of us think they ought to 


64. MODERN WORSHIP 


be. And we think also that those fateful possibilities 
have a direct connection with the simple ordinary 
usages of American Protestantism. Those usages may 
become divisive, or they may become powerful forces 
of unification. 

We must now turn to the notice of some concrete 
materials typical of current usages in worship. The 
passages chosen are not always selected because of su- 
perior merit in literary form or thought content, but 
as illustrative of actual use in some way significant to 
liturgical development. They are presented accord- 
ing as they fit into the pattern of worship already dis- 
cussed as it follows the order of experience through 
Preparation, Vision, Humility, Vitality, Recollection, 
Illumination, Dedication, Peace. I do not mean to 
suggest that all of these elements need conscious ex- 
pression in every ordinary service of worship, much 
less in services for extraordinary situations or occa- 
sions. Yet I am familiar with services of worship 
which are brief and simple though they include in 
some form an expression of most of these elements. 


PREPARATION 


The most common usage of a preparatory charac- 
ter is a Call to Worship comprised of one or more 
scripture verses. I do not quote any such because 
every minister can find them in the Bible, while ex- 
cellent collections are published in most of the major 
hymn books. A little careful work at this point will 
discover the possibility of using phrases of scripture 
which are at once a Call to Worship and an indication 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 65 


of the theme of the day. In this way the material be- 
comes presentative as well as preparatory. 

In many services the principal preparatory sugges- 
tion is set forth in an exhortation, such as the follow- 
ing: 

God, in whom we live and move and have our being, 
never leaves us day or night. But the very nearness and 
custom of his presence hide him from our infirm and sinful 
hearts, temptations gain a shameful power, and the good 
that is in us droops and fades. To clear such blindness away 
and recover the pure wisdom of a Christian mind, we are 
called to this day of remembrance and this house of prayer. 
Entering here, therefore, we cross the threshold of eternal 
things and commune with the Father who seeth in secret. 
Let us shake off the dust of transitory care, and every dis- 
guise that can come between us and God; and remembering 
whose disciples we strive to be, come to the simplicity, 
though it should be also to the sorrows, of the Christ.* 


Similar in preparatory intention, but of different con- 
tent is an invitation to worship written by Israel 
Zangwill: 

Come into the circle of Love and Justice, 

Come into the Brotherhood of Pity, 

Of Holiness and Health! 

Come, and ye shall know Peace and Joy. 

Let what ye desire of the Universe penetrate you, 

Let Loving Kindness and Mercy pass through you, 

And Truth be the Law of your mouth. 

For so ye are channels of the divine sea, 

Which may not flood the earth, but only steal in 

Through rifts in your souls.’ 


1 Hymn and Tune Book. Stanton Coit, Social Worship. 


66 MODERN WORSHIP 


A brief admonition of direct and forceful suggestive- 
ness is one of Mr. Stanton Coit’s: 


Let none who are here present remain mere critics or 
spectators. Let us all be communicants in the moral life of 
this meeting, entering into its devotion with a spirit of com- 
radeship, with a becoming sense of our several needs, and 
with reverence for the ideal of human character. 


From a service order of the West Side Unitarian 
Church of New York City are taken these words of 
aspiration, which properly fall under the element of 
spiritual preparation: 


From our widely scattered and distant homes we come to 
this our house of fellowship and aspiration. Bound by a 
common purpose and a common problem we unite in mu- 
tual aid. Free from every untruth, however delightful, we 
would search and find life’s meaning and its glory. We 
come to furbish our ideals, to redevote ourselves to the best 
we know, to recall our covenants with ourselves and others, 
and to set ourselves anew to the task of living. May the 
comradeship of kindred souls assist us, the knowledge that 
others share our hopes, our difficulties, and our failures, en- 
courage us. This is our great covenant, to dwell together in 
peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another. 


One or two faults of construction or diction in this 
paragraph are obvious. There was probably no inten- 
tion to make the claim of being free from every un- 
truth but rather of a desire to be so free. The word 
furbish is not an entirely happy metaphor. But let not 
these slight ineptitudes blind appreciation of the 
vigor, genuineness and breadth of this expression. It 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 67 


must be remembered that this is a “mine run” para- 
graph, one of many such prepared freshly each week 
by a busy minister. This is what makes it valuable. If 
far larger numbers of ministers took as much pains 
with their service of worship every week as this indi- 
cates, we should soon have an overflowing abundance 
of rich and vital liturgical material from which to 
make selection for every requirement. 

Still under the category of Preparation is the usual 
Invocation. For the most part amongst the free 
churches this preparatory prayer is an extempora- 
neous utterance. I quote some which have been pub- 
lished as indicative of excellent material for this 
point in the service: 


O God, the King eternal, who dividest the day from the 
darkness and turnest the shadow of death into the morning, 
drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to 
keep thy law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; 
that, having done thy will with cheerfulness while it was 
day, we may, when the night cometh, rejoice to give thee 


thanks. Amen. 
O Lord our God, who hast bidden the light to shine out 


of darkness and who hast again wakened us to praise thy 
goodness and ask for thy grace; accept now, in thy endless 
mercy, the sacrifice of our worship and thanksgiving, and 
grant unto us all such gifts as may be wholesome for us. 
Make us to be children of the light and of the day, and 
heirs of thine unfailing inheritance; so that we, being made 
whole in soul and body, and steadfast in faith may ever 
praise thy wonderful and holy name. Amen.” 


1 Hymn and Tune Book. 


68 MODERN WORSHIP 


For Christmas. 

O loving Father, who has brought us again to the glad 
season when we commemorate the birth of thy Son, Jesus 
of Nazareth, grant that his spirit may be born anew in our 
hearts this day and that we may joyfully welcome him to 
reign over us. Open our ears that we may hear again the 
angelic chorus of old; open our lips that we too may sing 
with uplifted hearts, Glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace, good will toward men. Amen.” 


For Easter. 

O Lord and Giver of life, who dost renew the face of 
the earth with singing and joyful loveliness, renew in our 
hearts an unconquered faith in the beauty of holiness. Even 
as the spirit of Christ arose triumphant over the bitter pain 
of the cross and the darkness of the tomb, enable us to look 
beyond the things of earth which pass away and to find our 
joy and peace in thine infinite and eternal life. Give us such 
trust and confidence in thy love that we may know our- 
selves to be ever in thine hand, and uplift our souls to wor- 
ship thee in spirit and in truth, at one in heart and voice with 
the great company of those who have walked in thy light 
and who stand in joy before thee. Amen.” 


For Children’s Sunday. 

O God, our Father, from thy hand has come every bless- 
ing which gives us joy and comfort. Thou dost speak to us 
through the love of our mothers, through the guiding care 
of our fathers. Help us to worship thee as the all-holy love 
who dost inspire every pure affection; as the infinite wis- 
dom who art the revealer of all truth; as the almighty 
power who dost uphold us in life. As we grow day by day 
in stature help us to grow in grace, that we may gladly 
serve thee and our fellow-men in righteousness and love. 


Amen.* 
1 Henry Wilder Foote. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 69 


As already suggested, some ministers find it very 
difficult to take any account liturgically of this mat- 
ter of preparation for worship. One other method is 
frequently used, the Processional Hymn. Although 
the content of ideas in the hymn may not always be 
of a preparatory character, the psychological effect of 
its use is of that sort. It gathers attention, begins to 
merge the individual worshipers into a congregation, 
and often initiates the rhythmic motion of the serv- 
ice. 


PRESENTATION 


Those services which begin with a considerable 
amount of preparatory material will hardly find 
place for much declarative expression at the opening 
of the service. If, on the other hand, material which 
takes account of the subjective attitude of the wor- 
shiper is slight or omitted altogether, there is oppor- 
tunity for a strong presentative element. The most 
interesting form of presentation now being more and 
more used is the Introit. The chief problem of the 
usage is the music. The statements by the minister 
may be freshly prepared for every service. The an- 
tiphons sung by the choir must of course be fitted to 
music. There is only a meager amount of music suit- 
able for this usage. Those genuinely interested to ex- 
periment will find materials. As the one single best 
publication available, I suggest a book published by 
the United Lutheran Publication House, Philadel- 
phia, Introits and Graduals by Matthews. This is 
simply an agreeable musical setting of the traditional 


70 MODERN WORSHIP 


Introits in English. Many of them are not usable in 
modern churches for theological reasons, and some 
for ethical reasons. Oftentimes an antiphon for one 
day may be combined with a portion of the Introit or 
a Gradual from another day in order to make up 
such responsive numbers as I am suggesting. In ac- 
tual practice this is a simple thing to do. The Introits 
given below are not prepared especially for publica- 
tion but are presented as having been actually used in 
services of worship, some prepared with more care 
than others. 

The words of the first selection were chosen to 
open a service in which the sermon subject was Re- 
ligious Comprehension. The music used was that of 
Matthews, the first response being taken from the 
ancient Introit for Transfiguration and the second be- 
ing the Gradual for the fourth Sunday in Lent. 


MInIsTER: 
Thus saith the Lord— 
I am the Lord and there is none else; there is no God be- 
side me: 
I girded thee though thou has not known me. 
I form the light and create darkness: 
I make peace and create evil: 
I the Lord do all these things. 
And there is no God beside me: a just God and a Savior. 
Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: 
For I am God and there is none else. 


CHor: 
The lightnings lightened the world; 
The earth trembled and shook. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 71 


How amiable are thy tabernacles, 
O Lord, Lord of hosts: 

My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for thy courts, 
The courts of the Lord. 


MiInisTER: 

Sing unto the Lord, and give thanks at the remembrance of 
his holiness. 

Some trust in chariots and some in horses: 

But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 

Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: 

And to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show 
the salvation of God. 


Cuor: 

I was glad when they said unto me: 
Let us go into the house of the Lord. 

Peace be within thy walls: 
And prosperity within thy palaces. 

They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion: 
Which cannot be removed, but abideth forever. 


The following Introit introduced a service devoted 
to the Social Gospel. The three choir responses are 
generic wordings suitable to a variety of themes of 
the active character, set to music privately printed: 


MunisTER: 

I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart: 

I will show forth all thy marvelous works. 

I will sing praise unto thy name, O thou Most High. 
The Lord shall endure forever: 

He has prepared his throne for judgment. 

And he shall judge the world in righteousness, 

The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed. 


72 MODERN WORSHIP 


CuHor: 
Bless the Lord, all his works, 


In all places of his dominion: 
Bless the Lord, O my soul. 


MInIsTER: 


Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, 
Do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. 


CHorr: 
Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts: 


Ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. 

Bless the Lord, O my soul. 

MINISTER: 

Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the up- 
right in heart. 

The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance and the 
memory of the just shall be blessed. 

The faithful in love shall abide in him. 

‘Their reward is with the Lord, ; 

And the care of them is with the Most High. 


CHorr: 

And his servants shall serve him: 

And they shall see his face. 

Bless the Lord, all his hosts. 

Bless the Lord, bless the Lord, O my soul. 


Amongst materials from outside the Bible, suitable 
for occasional use for Introits, the beautiful Canticle 
of Saint Francis of Assisi is one of the most accept- 
able. Music by Helen Goodrich for the portion indi- 
cated has been published. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 73 


MInIsTER: 

O most high, almighty, good Lord God, to thee belong 
praise, glory, honor, and all blessing. 

Praised be my Lord God with all his creatures, and espe- 
cially our brother the sun, who brings us the day and who 
brings us the light; fair is he and shines with a very great 
splendor: O Lord, he signifies to us thee. 

Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for the 
stars, the which he has set clear and lovely in heaven. 

Praised be my Lord for our brother the wind, and for 
air and cloud, calms and all weather by the which thou up- 
holdest life in all creatures. 

Praised be my Lord for our sister water, who is very 
serviceable unto us and humble and precious and clean. 

Praised be my Lord for our brother fire, through which 
thou givest us light in the darkness; and he is bright and 
pleasant and very mighty and strong. 


Cuor: 

Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, the which 
doth sustain us and keep us, and bringeth forth divers fruits 
and flowers of many colors, and grass. 


MInIsTER: 

Praised be my Lord for all those who pardon one an- 
other for his love’s sake, and who endure weakness and 
tribulation; blessed are they who peaceably shall endure, 
for thou, O most Highest, shalt give them a crown, 

Praised be my Lord for our sister, the death of the body, 
from which no man escapeth. Woe to him who dieth in 
mortal sin. Blessed are they who are found walking by thy 
most holy will, for the second death shall have no power to 
do them harm. 

Praise ye and bless the Lord, and give thanks unto him 
and serve him with great humility. 


74 MODERN WORSHIP 


Cuor: 

Praised be my Lord for our mother the earth, the which 
doth sustain us and keep us, and bringeth forth divers fruits 
and flowers of many colors, and grass. 


Sometimes it is effective to use the same general 
theme through more than one service. For the season 
of Advent, music has been written by Mr. Leo 
Sowerby to words of responses suggestive of expect- 
ancy. The minister’s parts may be varied while the 
antiphons of the choir sustain the Advent theme. 


MiInIsTER: 

Out of Zion the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. 
Our God shall come and shall not keep silence. 

Behold thy salvation cometh, 

The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard; 
And ye shall have gladness of heart. 

CuHor: 

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; 

And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; 

And the king of glory shall come in. 
The Lord of hosts. 

MinisTER: 

Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth 

truth may enter in. 

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. 

Call ye upon him while he is near. 

Hope thou in God—for I shall yet praise him for the help 

of his countenance. 

CuHor: 

Prepare your hearts unto the Lord. 

Prepare your hearts unto the Lord, unto the Lord. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 75 


MInIsTER: 

Behold the Lord will come with strong hand and his arm 
shall rule for him: 

Behold his reward is with him and his work before him. 

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: 

He shall gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his 
bosom: 

And shall gently lead them that are with young. 

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, 

For the earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the 


waters cover the sea. 


Cnorr: 
Prepare, Prepare the way of the Lord. 
Make straight in the desert 

An highway for our God. 


It is to be hoped that there may be more and better 
music available for antiphonal responses in the early 
future. This can hardly come, however, as a theoreti- 
cal development only. It must arise out of experi- 
ment and actual use. The many advantages in dignity, 
worshipful quality and impressiveness to be derived 
from the use of a choral Introit should prompt many 
experiments in new musical composition. Some com- 
posers interested in church music are producing large 
and brilliant works for extraordinary occasions. Few 
are dealing in a large way with the problem of the 
more simple musical works necessary for successful 
conduct of ordinary worship in a liturgical manner. 
Those who might care to use extra-Biblical materials 
for antiphonal responses will find a variety of poems 
with music in Stanton Coit’s Social Worship. The 


76 MODERN WORSHIP 


musical settings of these are derived largely from the 
ancient Gregorian modes. In any case, the develop- 
ment of better materials for the opening part of the 
service of worship is one of the most interesting op- 
portunities for constructive work in liturgics. 


HUMILITY 


Following next after a vivid experience or vision 
of reality comes the sense of belittlement or humility. 
All the old liturgies contain vigorous expressions of 
penitence. Many free church services have revived in 
some form a prayer of confession. I know of no lit- 
urgical expression of the rebellious reaction which 
sometimes the experience of a great magnitude pro- 
duces. In its cruder forms, this would not be suitable 
for devotional expression. Possibly sometime, how- 
ever, some minister will compose a good prayer ex- 
pressive of the spiritual need of those whose sense of 
belittlement is not a sense of shame, but of disap- 
pointment or defeat due to lesser talents. The most 
common penitential prayers revived for use amongst 
the free churches are the General Confession from 
the English Prayer Book and some adaptation of the 
Fifty-first Psalm. These are both grand compositions 
with a minimum of intellectual difficulty. I quote 
two or three other prayers amongst the best that I 
have noted from current materials. 


Prayer of Confession. 

Almighty Lord of heaven and earth, Before thee and 
one another we do confess our sins in thought, and word, 
and deed. We do earnestly repent all our misdoings, And 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS a7 


of any whom we may have wronged we seek forgiveness. 
With thy help we would overcome our faults, And in the 
spirit of Jesus Christ would faithfully serve thee and our 
fellow-men, All the days of our life. Amen. 


Prayer of Confession. 

O Thou unseen source of peace and holiness, may we 
come into Thy secret place and be filled with Thy pure and 
solemn light. 

As we come to Thee, how can we but remember where 
we have been drawn aside from the straight and narrow 
way, where we have not walked lovingly with each other 
and humbly with Thee, where we have feared what is not 
terrible and wished for what is not holy. In our weakness 
be Thou the quickening power of life. Arise within our 
hearts as healing, strength and joy. 

Day by day we grow in faith, in charity, in the purity by 
which we may see Thee, and the larger life of love to 
which Thou callest us. Amen. 


Prayer of Confession. 

Have compassion, O God, upon thy servants; seeing that 
our hearts are grieved for having offended against thee, and 
our consciences condemn us, and we have no refuge save 
only in thy mercy, which thou hast revealed through Jesus 
Christ, our Lord. Amen. 


Prayer of Confession. 

Source of all good! Day by day are thy blessings re- 
newed to us; and again we come with thankful hearts to 
seek the sense of thy presence. O that we could be reborn 
like the morning. For even as we seek to commune with 
thee shadows from our past dim the joy of our aspiration. 
We remember our thoughtless lives, our impatient tempers, 
our selfish aims; and yet we know that thou hast neither 
made us blind like the creatures that have no sin, nor left us 


78 MODERN WORSHIP 


without holy guidance—thy still, small voice speaking in 

our inmost conscience, and thine open word, having dwelt 

among us full of grace and truth, appealing to us to choose 

the better part. Amen. 
VITALITY 


The rhythm of alternation, moving from weak- 
ness to strength, finds expression in the great hymns 
of praise. This is the place in the service most com- 
monly given to the anthem. Many churches, how- 
ever, are finding the anthem an increasing problem. 
Not only are the words of many anthems unsuitable 
for modern religion, but much of the musical litera- 
ture is secular in quality. Perhaps paradoxically, 
many churches are looking for anthems which have a 
more progressive outlook in content combined with 
more religious spirit in the musical form. Probably 
the best brief collection of material is the Concord 
Anthem Book edited by Davison and Foote. Another 
difficulty about the anthem is that of merging it into 
the stream of the service. It often gives the impres- 
sion of a concert number rather than an integral por- 
tion of a moving and unified liturgy. It is for this 
reason that many churches use at this point simply a 
hymn of praise sung by the congregation. I am per- 
sonally sometimes accused of desiring to elaborate 
worship, and therefore wish to report that in our own 
church we have discarded the anthem for the more 
simple congregational hymn. 

Another resource for the expression of praise is the 
Responsive Reading. The Psalms together with a 
few other Biblical passages and church Canticles con- 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 79 


tinue to be the chief source materials for congrega- 
tional reading. A few churches have made experi- 
ments in the responsive reading of modern composi- 
tions. It is easier to criticize these attempts to put a 
fresh content into this ancient exercise than it is to 
produce others as good. The examples quoted are 
taken from the actual service orders as used in the 
Unitarian churches of Toledo and Los Angeles. 


The spirit of Man shall triumph and reign o’er all the 
earth. 

The earth was made for Man, he is heir to all that 
therein is. 

He is the end of creation, the purpose of the ages since 
the dawn of time. 

He is the fulfillment of all prophecy and in himself the 
goal of every great hope born in high desire. 

Who art Thou, O Spirit of Man? 

Thou art the Child of the Infinite, in thy nostrils is the 
breath of God. 

Thou didst come at Love’s behest, yea! to fulfill the 
Love of the Eternal didst Thou come. 

Yet Man’s beginnings were in lowliness, in nature akin 
to that of the brute. 

His body and appetite bore the marks of the beast, yet in 
his soul was the unquenchable Spark of Divine Fire. 

His ascending hath been with pain, with struggle and 
conflict hath he marched toward the Ideal. 

At times he hath turned his face away from the Promise 
of Destiny. 

He hath given reins to the lust of the brute; he hath ap- 
peared at times as the Child of Hate. 

He hath forgotten his Divine Origin, he hath forsaken 
the dream of Eternal Love. 


80 MODERN WORSHIP 


Then hath he lifted his hands against his fellows and 
war and bloodshed have dwelt upon the earth. 

In moments of blind passion he hath destroyed the work 
of his own hands, the fruit of the centuries hath he cast to 
the winds. 

He hath marred the Divine Image, deaf to the call of 
the Promise of God. 

Upon the altars of Self hath he sacrificed Brotherhood, 
and ruled by avarice and greed he hath slain Justice and 
Right. 

Thus have wickedness and sin dwelt in his midst, and his 
soul hath been chained in the bondage of low desires. 

Yet all this could not destroy the unquenchable Spark of 
Divine Fire. 

For it belongs to the Eternal and that which is Eternal 
cannot die. 

Therefore, great though Thy shortcomings, manifold 
though Thy failure, wicked though Thy crimes; 

I will not despair, O spirit of Man! 

Though Thou destroyest fairest hopes yet shall they live 
again. 

Though Thou returnest to the level of the beast Thou 
shalt arise to the heights of Thy Divine Humanity. 

For the spirit of Man breathes the untiring purpose of 
the Living God and to the fulfillment of that purpose the 


whole creation moves. 


The author of this reading has recognized that its 
purposes are not merely intellectual but also artistic. 
He has sought to achieve the desired remoteness or 
distance by retaining something of the archaic style 
of diction. Moreover, he has succeeded in a marked 
degree in achieving a rhythmic movement which 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 81 


gives a poetic spirit to the composition and makes an 
immediate appeal to the senses. All these things are 
extremely difficult and merit the warm approval of 
those seriously interested in a vital development for 
new reality and power in worship. The next selection 
abandons the archaic style, but it has vigor, freshness 
and simplicity and achieves a certain measure of 
rhythm despite its prosaic form. 


There is a law in man’s being, sacred, inviolable, re- 
vealed in his sense of what he ought to be and do. 

This higher law—the law above all laws—rests not on 
our consent. It is here commanding us whether we consent 
or not. 

It is not imposed from without but given in the very 
nature of man. 

Man is made for the good; starting imperfect he is 
called to be perfect. 

We are here to lift ourselves to the measure of perfect 
goodness. 

Life is not for living merely, but for a perfect life that 
each may live here as the citizen of an ideal kingdom. 

The higher law is that which commands us to seek the 
universal good. 

Not food nor raiment nor shelter; not comfort nor ease; 
not science nor art are the ends of existence, but the “king- 
dom of God.” 

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

When man obeys the inner command he feels the fresh- 
ness of an eternal day in his heart. 

When a man says, “I ought”; when love warms him; 
when he chooses, warned from on high, the good and great 


deed, 


82 MODERN WORSHIP 


Then deep melodies wander through his soul from Su- 
preme Wisdom. 

He who does a good deed is instantly ennobled. 

If a man is at heart just, then in so far is he God; the 
safety of God, the immortality of God, the majesty of God 
do enter into that man with justice. 

The stars in heaven are not so grand as a man living in 
obedience to the higher law, or dying when it is better not 
to live. 

We belong to peace; we belong to love; we belong to all 
that is covered by the sacred name of Good. 

O let us count for good, for purity, for unselfishness, for 
all that makes human life strong and stable on the earth. 


Another selection attains a considerable reminiscence 
of ancient form by the use of a single archaic word 
only. And by repetitive phrases it attains and in- 
creases momentum to an especially vigorous climax. 


Through the long centuries of human history there has 
been building a Beloved Community in which all souls that 
love, all souls that aspire, are bound together in one life. 

Precious unto us are the names of the heroes and leaders 
of the race who have toiled mightily in the service of the 
Beloved Community. 

Precious unto us are the men of the spirit of Jesus, who, 
in every age and every clime, have endured all things that 
. they might bear testimony to that truth which is powerful 
unto the salvation of the world. 

Precious unto us is the memory of the unnumbered mil- 
lions who humble and nameless the straight hard pathway 
have trod. 


Precious unto us the memory of earth’s lowly who have 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 83 


added, each in his measure, to the ever growing treasures of 
the common life of man. 

All these have not lived in vain, 

They have put on immortality in the life of the Beloved 
Community. 

All these are not dead. 

They have joined the Choir Invisible whose music is the 
gladness of the world. 

Still does the spirit of Jesus speed on its conquering way. 

Still do the Prophets and Martyrs inspire men to heroism 
and self-sacrifice in the service of life. 

Still do our own beloved dead live again in minds made 
better by their presence. 

We too are members of the Beloved Community. A 
thousand unseen ties bind us in one living body apart from 
which there is no life. 

We are joined in one communion of love and aspiration 
with all mankind, living and dead. 

We too have our gifts to bring to the altar of Humanity, 
—gifts of love, of wisdom, of consecration. 

We too would make our contribution to the unborn fu- 
ture, and find immortality in the radiant life of the Be- 
loved Community. 

We are strong with the strength of all mankind; the 
courage of Humanity’s burden bearers of all the years de- 
scends upon us. 

We are thine, O Beloved Community! Take us, use us! 
Let our whole lives be an offering laid on thy living altar. 


I know of no published volumes of modern respon- 
sive readings excepting Readings from Great Au- 
thors, arranged by John Haynes Holmes and others. 
Some of the selections are usable, while others fail of 


84 MODERN WORSHIP 


the rhythmic and poetic quality necessary to success- 
ful responsive reading. The problems of the respon- 
sive reading have led many to abandon it altogether 
and to transfer the desirable congregational partici- 
pation to other parts of the service, including some 
form of litany. 


RECOLLECTION 


After the initial acts of worship, of approach, con- 
fession and praise and the exercises which have as- 
sisted their performance with genuine and moving 
feeling, the service is ready for a more definite men- 
tal and moral content. This is afforded by scripture 
readings and prayers. Although only a few churches 
have begun the custom of extra-Biblical scripture 
readings, there is already an abundance of excellent 
material for the purpose. The large volume I of So- 
cial Worship by Stanton Coit is a mine of valuable 
selections. More recently published is an excellent 
but much smaller compilation, Great Companions, 
arranged by Robert French Leavens. Two useful col- 
lections of poetic material are The Worlds Great 
Religious Poetry, edited by Caroline Miles Hill, and 
Modern Religious Verse and Prose, compiled by 
Fred Merrifield. Undoubtedly the development of 
an expanded lectionary will receive increasing atten- 
tion in the early future. Nothing in the way of au- 
thoritative compilations may be expected soon, but 
there is need for further experiment and publication 
of religious readings for church services. I should not 
be surprised to see in the chancel of some church, be- 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 85 


side the lectern, a suitable bookrack containing vari- 
ous translations of the Biblical scriptures and certain 
volumes of extra-Biblical scriptures ready at hand 
for use in the service. 

For the most of the free churches, fixed and read 
prayers are not generally acceptable. My own prefer- 
ence is for the maintenance of the custom of free and 
spontaneous prayer, despite the many objections to it 
and the low level of achievement in it. It tends to be- 
come monotonous and meager in content as compared 
with the wealth and variety of liturgical prayer. It 
tends to length and reiteration. It tends to shocking 
improprieties of material, structure and diction. At a 
recent community service which I attended, a prayer 
by a preacher of national reputation began with the 
quotation of a whole quatrain of rhymed verse. If 
such a man could make so glaring a mistake, it is 
ample evidence of a general lack of the best critical 
canons in this matter. The objection in this particular 
instance is not merely literary but imaginative and 
spiritual. No one who had himself made the initial 
preparation of spirit for the solemn act of prayer 
could begin the utterance with a series of rhymes. I 
believe, therefore, that genuine, inner readiness of 
spirit to pray somehow improves the very style of 
speech. This is not to say that the spirit of prayer 
alone is sufficient to assure good diction without at- 
tention to the technique of style. The advantage of 
prepared prayers is that the excellence of style, which 
means the suitability of the medium to the theme, is 
of marked assistance to the spirit. 


86 MODERN WORSHIP 


I do not quote examples of the many available col- 
lects. Every minister should possess copies of certain 
modern collections of brief prayers as well as the 
older prayer books. The older prayers are for the 
most part superior not only in style but in the variety 
of the spiritual need and aspiration voiced. It is diffi- 
cult to find good written prayers which give expres- 
sion to the urgencies of present-day ethics. The two 
prayers following are presented as expressive of the 
outlooks of modern morals, though both have stylis- 
tic faults. They are taken from Modern Prayers, 
edited by Samuel McComb, D.D. 


Prayer For International Good Will—S. T. Gulick. 


O Thou, who hast made of one blood all nations of men, 
help us to see the largeness and wisdom of Thy ways. Thou 
dost love all men and dost yearn to bring them into the ful- 
ness of Thine own rich life. While we glory in the Christ 
whom Thou hast given us, preserve us, Heavenly Father, 
from spiritual arrogance and race pride. Open our eyes to 
the goodness and truth Thou hast revealed to others. Make 
us more like Christ who rejoiced in the faith of the Roman 
centurion and praised the noble deeds of the good Samari- 
tan. Hasten the day when race pride and prejudice shall 
vanish from the earth and universal goodwill prevail. For- 
give, O Lord, our narrowness, our selfishness, our pride and 
lead us into the fulness of Thine own infinite life. Make 
us in truth Thy children: through Christ our Lord. 

Amen. 


A Merchants Prayer—L. E. D. Hewins. 


Lord Jesus, give us wisdom to understand and a will to 
obey Thy teaching concerning riches and poverty, buying 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 87 


and selling, and the conduct of business between man and 
man. Never let us forget the order of industry is based on 
those spiritual principles Thou hast taught the world. Grant 
to the merchant, the producer, the employee, the consumer 
to know the laws of fair compensation and profit, and help 
us to realize that in all our business dealings we are called 
to serve our fellows, to bless them, not to injure them. 
Grant that we may never desire to take something for noth- 
ing, and when we give, may it be with thoughtfulness and 
with due regard to the interests of the giver and the taker, 
so that those whom we serve may prosper in things spiritual 
and in things material. For Thy Name’s sake, Amen. 


One of the ancient usages of form which is finding 
more and more favor is the Responsive Prayer or 
Litany. It has several advantages. It affords a direct 
and natural method of congregational participation 
in public devotions. It gives the sense of finish and 
adequate preparation to the service. It yields the 
benefits of fixed form without some of the dangers 
of formalism when the minister only reads fixed 
prayers. It usually provides a wealth of content ex- 
pressed in the most brief way. The first example se- 
lected is for general devotional use in an ordinary 
service of worship. In this instance, the response of 
the people is sung. 


Litany. 
MInIsTER: 

Almighty and eternal God, source of the light that never 
sets and of the love that never fails, life of our life, father 
of our spirits, draw us to Thyself in trust and love. 

By all the meaning and the wonder of Thy order which 


88 MODERN WORSHIP 


rules over all; by the beauty which shines through all; by 
the ever wider knowledge and deeper life which blesses all: 


PEOPLE: 
Teach us and lead us ever nearer to Thee. 


MinisTER: 

By the revelation of Thyself in the lives of all wise, 
great and good men; by the strength and grace which shine 
for us in the face of Jesus Christ; by every living word of 
truth and by every good example; by the fellowship, joy 
and praise of Thy holy church: 

PEOPLE: 

Teach us and lead us ever nearer to Thee. 
MINIsTER: 

By the kindness and love which have been about us from 
the beginning of our days even until now; by the relations 
of home; by the love of little children; by the faithful 
loyalty of friends; by the very trials and bereavements 
which chasten and deepen our life; by all the blessed memo- 
ries of our dead: 

PEOPLE: 

‘Teach us and lead us ever nearer to Thee. 
MinisTER: 

By the conflict of our souls with temptation; by our mis- 
takes and failures; by our shame and repentance; by every 
holy aspiration, striving, and victory: 

PEOPLE: 

‘Teach us and lead us ever nearer to Thee. 
MunIsTER: 

By all our experience; in health and in sickness; in joy 
and sorrow; in every circumstance and in every place, O 


God, our Father: 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 89 


PEOPLE: 
Teach us and lead us ever nearer to Thee. Amen. 


Another composition of a generic spiritual content is 
adapted from H. Youlden as published in Social 
Worship. 


Litany of Thanksgiving. 
MInIsTER: 

Let us join in the tumult of praise ceaselessly resounding 
throughout creation. With stars that sing and skies that 
smile, with the exuberance and beauty of the life of nature, 
with the voices and hearts of the children of men: with 
saints and seers and prophets, with those whose craftsman- 
ship is their song, with all who find in human service their 
joy made full. 


CONGREGATION: 

We lift up our hearts in gratitude and praise. 
MInIsTER: 

In life, its adventures, risks and prizes, in the strength of 
the soul that overcomes all dangers, 

CONGREGATION: 

We rejoice with thanksgiving. 
MiInistTER: 

In tasks that are hard, in work well done, in the skill of 
our hands, in experience, judgment, decision, 
CONGREGATION: 

We rejoice with thanksgiving. 

MInIsTER: 

In knowledge, in joining fact to fact, in seeing truth in 

its beauty, 
CONGREGATION: 
We rejoice with thanksgiving. 


90 MODERN WORSHIP 


MINISTER: 

In health, in sickness that has passed away, in sorrows 
that have not visited us, in temptation that did not tarry at 
our door, in fears that turned to triumph, 


CONGREGATION: 
We rejoice with thanksgiving. 
MInIsTER: 
In the faces of those we love, in eyes that look kindly 


upon us even when we fail, in those with whom we are at 
rest, 


CONGREGATION: 

We rejoice with thanksgiving. 
MInIsTER: 

In those who though dead, yet speak, the known and the 
unknown, the great and the lowly, by whose lives we are 
enabled to live, 

CONGREGATION: 

We rejoice with thanksgiving. 
MInIsTER: 

In the occasions when we humbled ourselves and chose 
the way of meekness, in the things we did which were wiser 
than we knew, in the unexpected strength that came to us 
in the hour of weakness and despair, 

CONGREGATION: 

We rejoice with thanksgiving. 
MInIsTER: 

In time that heals every wound, makes every rough place 
plain and every crooked thing straight, 
CONGREGATION: 

We rejoice with thanksgiving. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS gt 


MInIsTER: 

In the Life that rules the world, at whose feet we do 
our work and in whose arms we fall asleep, 
CONGREGATION: 


We rejoice and will rejoice: we give thanks and will give 
thanks. Let the work of our hands declare the gladness of 
our hearts and kindly deeds speak forth the gratitude within. 


From a book of Acts of Devotion comes a prayer 
with something more of the modern ethical content. 


Brief Litany. 

For ministers and all who guide the thoughts of the 
people by their writings; for all artists, poets, dramatists, 
musicians and journalists; that inspired by pure ideals, our 
common life may be crowned with beauty and vision; 


We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord. 

For all who champion the cause of the poor, and all who 
seek to set free those whose toil can bring no joy, that they 
may be saved from bitterness and disappointment, and in 
all things seek first the kingdom of God; 

We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord. 

For all who heal the body, guard the health of the people 


and tend the sick; that they may follow in the footsteps of 
Christ, the great Physician both of the body and soul; 


We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord. 


For all on whose labor we depend for the necessaries of 
life, and for those who carry on the commerce of the 
world; that they may seek no private gain which would 
hinder the good of all; 


We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord. 


92 MODERN WORSHIP 


In a Christmas Service at Beloit College, the follow- 
ing vigorous and beautiful Responsive Prayer was 
used. 


Christmas Litany. 
MInIsTER: 

Glory to God in the highest. 
CONGREGATION: 

And on earth peace among men in whom he is well 
pleased. 
MInisTER: 

Let us pray: 

O God, Thou art our salvation, we will trust and not 
be afraid. Thou art our strength and song. 
CONGREGATION: 

Therefore with joy shall we draw water out of the wells 
of salvation. 

MiInIsTER: 

We thank Thee for the birth of Jesus, that Thy spirit 
was upon him, that he was anointed to preach good tidings 
to the poor, to proclaim release to the captive, the recover- 
ing of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are 
bruised. 

CONGREGATION: 

Help us to make our present world the acceptable year of 
the Lord. 
MInIsTER: 

O God, enable us, as we worship Thee, to kindle with 
the joy of simple shepherds long ago, at the thought of all 
that came to the world in the birth of the child Jesus. 
CONGREGATION: 

Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 93 


MInIsTER: 

Help us, O God, in the light of the shining star to real- 
ize the wastes and desolations of the world, to feel the 
weight of the world’s sorrow and need, to be made aware 
of the power of evil, to see what spiritual loss is caused by 
man’s hatreds and sins. 


CoNGREGATION: 
Help us with Jesus’ spirit to build the old wastes and to 
raise up the former generations. 


MInIsTER: 

Forgive us, O God, for our weariness of heart after 
great conflict and exertion. Suffer us not to become crea- 
tures and nations of selfishness, of narrow foolish pride, 
marred with hardness of heart and weakened by fear and 
suspicion. 

CONGREGATION: 

Grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of 
our enemies may serve Thee without fear. 
MInIsTER: 

Help us to build America in love rather than in provin- 
cial selfishness; help us here to keep America a land of hope 
for all mankind; help us to find in our patriotism the cross 
of humanity’s desires. 

CONGREGATION: 

May the dayspring from on high visit us, to shine upon 

us when in darkness we lose our faith in Thee. 


These examples of litanies are sufficient to indi- 
cate the practicability of the form. Probably few 
churches would care to use such a prayer in every 
service. If for any reason it is desirable to omit a Re- 
sponsive Reading from the Psalms or other writings, 


94 MODERN WORSHIP 


then the litany form of prayer may very well supply 
the valuable congregational share in the service. It is 
a form especially adapted to the great festal services 
of the church year or other extraordinary occasions. 
It isa form, moreover, in which original composition 
is more likely to be successful than in some other 
parts of the liturgy. 


ILLUMINATION 


Because of the prevailing distaste, not to say con- 
tempt, for creeds, little progress has been made by 
way of modern statements of faith. Those who have 
tried to make such statements have at once discovered 
that it is extremely difficult to produce anything of 
sufficiently dignified and rhythmic style for congre- 
gational recital. The examples quoted are not pre- 
sented as satisfactory but as actual usages. 


Confession of Faith. 


We believe in God, the Father of our spirits, the life of 
all that is: infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness, and 
working everywhere for righteousness and peace and love. 

We believe in the ideal of human life which reveals it- 
self in Jesus as love to God and love to man. 

We believe that we should be ever growing in knowledge 
and ever aiming at a higher standard of character. 

We believe in the growth of the kingdom of God on 
earth, and that our loyalty to truth, to righteousness, and to 
our fellow men, is the measure of our desire for its coming. 

We believe that the living and the dead are in the hands 
of God; that underneath both are His everlasting arms. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 95 


A Scriptural Confession of Faith. 


God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship 
him in spirit and in truth. God is light and in him is no 
darkness at all, neither shadow that is cast by turning. God 
is love and every one that loveth is begotten of God and 
knoweth God. Love never faileth, and there is no fear in 
love, but perfect love casteth out fear. So then we are 
debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, but we re- 
ceived the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father. 
Being therefore always of good courage and knowing that 
whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the 
Lord, for we walk by faith not by sight, we make it our 
aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing unto 
him. For we know that, to them that love God, all things 
work together for good. 


Confession of Faith. 


We believe that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him 
must worship Him in spirit and in truth. 

We believe that God is Light, and if we walk in the 
light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with an- 
other. 

We believe that God is Love, and every one that loveth 
is born of God and knoweth Him. 

We believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that God 
hath given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 

We believe that we are children of God, and that He 
hath given us of His spirit. 

We believe that if we confess our sins, He is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins. 

We believe the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; 
but that he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. 


Amen. 


96 MODERN WORSHIP 


In a few services I have found some extensive ex- 
pressions of faith, sometimes arranged for Respon- 
sive Reading. The following sentences are excerpts 
from formulations of Tolstoi and R. Roberts. 


I believe in God, who is for me spirit, love, the principle 
of all things. 

I believe that God is in me, as I am in him. 

I believe that the reason for life is for each of us simply 
to grow in love. 

I believe that this growth in love will contribute more 
than any other force to establish the Kingdom of God on 
earth— 

To replace a social life in which division, falsehood and 
violence are all-powerful with a new order in which hu- 
manity, truth and brotherhood will reign. 

I believe that the will of God has never been more 
clearly, more freely expressed than in the teaching of the 
man Jesus. 

I believe that this teaching will give welfare to all hu- 
manity, save men from destruction, and give this world the 
greatest happiness. 

Jesus’ teaching is goodness and truth. Its essence is the 
unity of mankind, the love of men for one another. 

I believe that the fulfillment of the teaching of Jesus is 
possible. 


I believe in the transcendental meaning and hope of 
Life. 

I believe that the real values of life are the good, the 
true and the beautiful. 

I believe in the practicability of the Kingdom of God, 


and in freedom to choose it and to work for it. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 97 


I believe in the sacramental quality of my day’s work and 
that I may see and serve God in it. 

I believe in a grace that can overcome my selfishness and 
pride, and that will enable me to overcome temptation, and 
upon which I need never call in vain. 

I believe in love as the final law of life. 


Despite the many difficulties which are obvious, 
there is great value in a common recital of conviction. 
Here is a genuine opportunity for invention and de- 
velopment. It is perhaps an extremely presumptuous 
thing to attempt comprehensive statements. The 
times are not favorable to the production of creedal 
formularies comparable to the ancient expressions. 
But the times are favorable for the statement of defi- 
nite items of conviction such as are actually repre- 
sentative of the local church at worship. Our worship 
could be much enriched if on special occasions the 
service contained brief expressions of those things ac- 
tually cherished and valued amongst us. Such state- 
ments might be limited to particular regions of im- 
portance or value, such as nature, industry, human 
association or others when the service themes are de- 
voted to these regions. Such a simple usage might do 
something to mitigate the perhaps too prevalent ob- 
jection to creedal formularies, and prepare the ground 
for more ambitious and comprehensive efforts. 


DEDICATION 


Protestant services in general have failed to de- 
velop any vigorous and moving exercise of consecra- 
tion. The omission of this aspect of worship involved 


98 MODERN WORSHIP 


in the abandonment of the sacramental system is one 
of the most profound losses of the free churches. The 
exercise of dedication is essentially sacramental. It is 
difficult in the brief ordinary service of worship to 
include any effective offertory. Many churches have 
tried to utilize the otherwise ugly procedure of tak- 
ing up a collection for an expression of personal con- 
secration. A scripture passage before the offering and 
a prayer following it comprise the simplest method 
of this attempt. I quote only two forms of consecra- 
tion amongst those discovered as current usages. The 
first is in the form of a creed, taken from the service 
order of the Congregational Church of Webster 
Groves, Missouri. The second is from a special 
service arranged by the superintendent of the Chi- 
cago Southern District of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 


Consecration of Offering. 

I believe in the Fatherhood of God and in the Brother- 
hood of Man. I believe that Christ is the Way, the Truth 
and the Life. I believe in the clean heart, the unworldly 
mind and the service of love that Jesus taught and exempli- 
fied. I accept His spirit and His teaching. 


O ffertory Litany. 
‘To the preaching of the good tidings of salvation 
We consecrate our gifts. 
To the teaching of Jesus’ way of life 
We consecrate our gifts. 
To the healing of broken bodies and the soothing of fevered 
brows 
We consecrate our gifts. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 99 
To the leading of every little child to the knowledge and 


love of Jesus 
We consecrate our gifts. 
To the caring for helpless age and the relief of all who 
look to us for help 
We consecrate our gifts. 
To the evangelization of the city and the building of the 
kingdom of God 


We consecrate our wealth, our efforts and our lives. 


It is of course true, for it could hardly be otherwise, 
that the note of self-dedication finds expression in the 
usual Communion Service of the Protestant bodies. 
My impression is, however, that there is no very 
clear consciousness of this element such as to lead to 
its development as an important and specific part of 
the service. There is likely to be a more definite rec- 
ognition of the exercise of dedication in the more lit- 
urgical or fixed services. In the liturgy of King’s 
Chapel, Boston, is the following prayer taken from 
the order for the Lord’s Supper. It is a genuine ex- 
pression of consecration. 


O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy humble servants 
earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness, mercifully to accept 
this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving; beseeching 
thee to grant that, looking unto Christ and entering into 
the fellowship of his suffering, we may be changed into his 
likeness and with him pass from death into life. And here 
we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our 
souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacri- 
fice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee, that all we who are 
partakers of this holy communion may be filled with thy 


100 MODERN WORSHIP 


grace and heavenly benediction. And although we be un- 
worthy, through our manifold sins, to offer unto thee any 
sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden 
duty and service; not weighing our merits, but pardoning 
our offences, according to thine abundant mercies in 
Christ Jesus our Lord; through whom all honor and glory 
be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end. 
Amen. 


In the published order for the Communion Service 
according to the use of the First Parish Church of 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, the minister speaks the 
following words in the administration of the sacra- 
ment: 


In communion with the spirit of Jesus, and in behalf of 
this congregation, receive this cup of blessing; that it may 
be to us all a renewed pledge of that discipleship which is 
not in word alone, but in spirit and in truth. 


The communion office prepared by the Reverend 
Harvey J. Loy for a Unitarian church contains a 
double oblation according to the ancient usage of the 
church. 


THE OFFERTORY: 

Accept, O Holy Father, Almighty and eternal God, this 
bread, which we offer thee from among thine own gifts in 
token that thou art the source of all our food, both earthly 
and heavenly; and grant that it may help us to come nearer 
to thee in the spirit. Amen. 

May we live in thy love, and fail not to receive thy bene- 
fits with grateful heart. Amen. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 101 


We offer thee the fruit of the vine, that our thoughts and 
deeds, like it, may bring a sweet savor before thy presence. 
Amen. 
Pray, brethren, that our offering may be acceptable to 
God the Father Almighty. 


PEOPLE: 

May the Lord receive our offering, to the praise and 
glory of his name, unto our benefit, and that of all his holy 
church. Amen. 


THe Great OBLATION: 

Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, we, thy 
humble servants, do celebrate and offer here before thee, of 
thine own gifts, this token of our sonship to thee and of 
our brotherhood with each other, even as thy servant Jesus 
did with his disciples. And together with this token, we 
offer the sacrifice of our thanksgiving and the incense of 
our prayers. 


PREPARATION OF THE COMMUNICANTS: 

And here, O most holy Father, we would present our- 
selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and 
living sacrifice unto thee; and we pray that, as this bread 
was once scattered on the mountains, and is here gathered 
into one, so thy children of every nation, kindred, and 
tongue, may be made one living and holy church; and as 
this wine was gathered from the fruit of the vine, so all 
thy people may abide as branches of that holy vine reaching 
up unto thee, and may bring forth good fruit to thy glory. 


It will be observed that these communion prayers are 
adaptations of older material from the Prayer Book. 
They are so well done, however, as to justify the 
procedure, and well illustrate a legitimate method of 


102 MODERN WORSHIP 


rearranging or modifying older expressions. The 
Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church 
designates as The Offertory, scriptural sentences ex- 
pressive of dedication. 


The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: 
A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not 
despise. 
Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion: 
Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. 
Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteous- 
ness: 
With burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering. 


It would seem strange that the Lutheran Liturgy of 
Communion contains no offering of the material ele- 
ments or no great oblation comparable to the usage of 
other liturgical bodies, not even comparable to the 
practice of some Unitarian parishes. The Offertory 
quoted, however, is used in the ordinary service of 
worship, and it should be remembered that in the 
Lutheran view several of the exercises of the ordi- 
nary service are regarded as sacrificial or dedicatory 
elements. 

The fixing of purposes and perseverance in them is 
so vital to religion that it needs more and better 
forms of expression. I have no special wisdom in the 
matter for the ordinary service of worship. For the 
Communion Service I commend a fresh study of the 
older liturgies at this point, and the definite inclusion 
of an exercise of consecration brought into connection 
with the outer symbols of the sacrament. 


LITURGICAL MATERIALS 103 
PEACE 


After the great adventure of the spirit in worship 
there remains a mood of composure which finds ex- 
pression in the older liturgies. The effort of retreat to 
find the harmony and integrity of sanctuary, followed 
by the multiplicity of recollection, reordered by the 
achievement of purpose, should leave in the heart and 
mind a new self-possession as the steps return from 
the church to practical life. In the most of our free 
church services this is given expression in the closing 
hymn and a brief benediction. Possibly this is sufh- 
cient for the ordinary Sunday morning service of 
worship. At other times there may well be a more 
ample account of this phase of experience. To indi- 
cate the older usage I quote three brief Post Com- 
munion prayers from the Roman missal. 


Grant, we beseech Thee, O Almighty God, That we 
may attain by the understanding of a purified mind that 
which we celebrate with solemn rite. Through Our Lord. 


Being fed with celestial delights, we beseech Thee, O 
Lord, That we may ever hunger after those things by 
which we truly live. Through Our Lord. 


Grant, we humbly beseech Thee, Almighty God, That 
those whom Thou refreshest with Thy sacraments may 
serve Thee worthily by a life well pleasing to Thee. 
Through Our Lord. 


From a vesper service arranged for the Park Con- 
gregational Church of Norwich, Connecticut, is taken 


104 MODERN WORSHIP 


this beautiful closing exercise of the character indi- 
cated. 


Prayer. 

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gra- 
cious favor, and further us with thy continual help; that in 
all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may 
glorify thy holy Name, and finally by thy mercy obtain 
everlasting life; ‘Through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

CuHorr—Amen. 
A scription. 

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly 
above all that we ask or think, according to the power that 
worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ 
Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. 

Cuor—Threefold Amen. 


Benediction. 
Beloved, let your going forth be in the name of the Lord, 
and be ye thankful. 
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. 
Cuorrn—Amen. 





aes th xt vA 
CHAPTER IV 


The Aesthetics of Structure 





Of the aesthetic attitude—It comes in helpful pulses in 
the more strenuous enterprises, as we stop in climbing great 
mountains to gather not only breath and refreshment, but 
the charm and magnificence that each fresh étape reveals. 
From time immemorial men have dedicated them as festi- 
vals, and solemn concourses. . . . Indeed, this is the defini- 
tion of drudgery, the blind production of goods, cut off from 
all interpretation of their common enjoyment. . . . It has 
been the inspiration of universal religions, of political de- 
mocracy, and later of industrial democracy to bring some- 
thing of the universal achievement, of the solemn festival, 
of common delight into the isolated and dreary activities 
which all together make possible the blessed community, the 
state, the co-operative society, and all the meanings which 
we vaguely call social and spiritual. 


Gerorce H. Meap 


IV. 


HE setting and scene for the customary celebra- 

tion of religion is the church building. Of all 
the arts that of architecture is the most pervasive be- 
cause it touches everybody. The stuff of the earth is 
fashioned into forms capable of giving shelter for all 
the children of men. A large proportion of mankind 
has made some attempt to fashion these forms in 
such modes as are pleasing to the eye. Amongst all 
the buildings in the world the most significant and 
fascinating are the houses of prayer. A very quiver of 
ecstasy, compact of humility and joy, as that of Mary 
receiving the announcing angel, must be the sense of 
any man called upon to mold the shapes that are to 
house his fellow men for their supreme experience. 
The forms must be plain yet so ordered and subtle as 
to start the motions of life, simple yet rich with mani- 
fold intimations for the imagination. 

Those who have followed our brief course of 
thought will have taken note of a recurring sugges- 
tion which has both limited and defined its scope. We 
have at all times kept before us the alternating char- 
acter of the mystic life, its ceaseless journeys into the 
world, its perpetual retreat toward God. Celebration 
is a process of recollection brought to its fullest 
meaning in a moment of realization. In celebration, 
events are remembered, but remembered according 
as they are seen to have been of high moment in the 
total life. In that supreme celebration which rises to 
the nature of religion, the recollective process be- 


108 MODERN WORSHIP 


comes universal and the total life presented is not 
only man’s but God’s. My present thought 1s that the 
church building may assist both the process of recol- 
lection and the joy of realization. It may minister the 
sense of totality in which all several things are 
merged and yet find their several worths. If the al- 
ternation of attention between the One and the many 
pervades the liturgy, so also it may pervade the 
church building. 

First, it is the power of unification that we most 
value in religious structure. It is the sense of retreat 
and of sanctuary which calls for the most complete 
powers of the artist builder. How shall he devise 
those proportions, lights and shadows, shapes and 
surfaces which shall afford refuge and start the mo- 
tions of integrity? How shall he cut away all other 
clamoring impulses save the search for God? How 
shall he eliminate all other concerns and affairs? 
How shall he effect distance, aloofness, withdrawal? 
How shall he suggest that supreme worth for which 
the world is well lost? I do not know just how he is 
to do these things, but I do believe that he should 
attempt them, for men desire refuge and sanctuary, 
and the touch of that which the world cannot give 
nor take away. Certainly, first of all the builder must 
conceive the possibility and the desirability of inti- 
mating these things in the structure itself. We cannot 
be satisfied with churches which are merely places of 
assembly, auditoriums, halls, when there are in the 
world and may again be in the world buildings which 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE 109 


in themselves minister the presence of divinity and 
startle the human spirit to an awareness of it. 

I make no doubt that in the technique to be utilized 
to these ends, there must be that which makes an im- 
mediate or sensuous appeal. The building itself may 
initiate that physical motion which vitalizes the be- 
holder and rises into imaginative vigor. There are 
many artistic possibilities of motion and of rhythm. 
This is one of the chief reasons for the immemorial 
use of the arcade or colonnade in religious structures. 
These are powerful forms of rhythm, one of the es- 
sential qualities in all the great arts. Other and more 
refined phases of the structural composition, flutings, 
moldings, mullionings, abstract patterns and repeti- 
tive shapes may be arranged for their rhythmic value. 
By the movement of the eye from point to point of 
an arcade, by the stimulus to motion that is ever pres- 
ent in the horizontal lines of a nave and by the lure 
of the high light or dominant centrality in the inte- 
rior composition, the worshiper is disposed to move. 
To move where? I hesitate to answer. At least I must 
first remind you that no speech can exaggerate the po- 
tencies of beauty, the unutterable desire for life 
which it awakens, the unmeasured promise of life 
which it declares. I say, then, that he is disposed to 
move not merely in body but in spirit, out of his pres- 
ent into his possible self, out of all things that are 
into all that may be. He is quite literally disposed to 
move toward God and to move on and on with God. 

The selection and disposition of color is another of 


110 MODERN WORSHIP 


the artist’s opportunities in his effort to quicken ap- 
prehending attention. If it be true that the heart of 
man is made suddenly glad by the sight of pale green 
water beyond the dark shore foliage of a northern 
lake, or surprised into delight by the sapphire blue of 
a southern sea, it need not decline to be pleased by the 
translucent color of a gracious window or the warm 
riches of a fresco or the magnificent glow of a glass 
mosaic. All critics of the arts know the tendencies of 
the primary colors to induce definite moods. I recall 
at the moment the bluish light of a lady chapel in 
New York, a very mass and volume of light, power- 
fully suggestive of sanctuary; and also the golden 
glow of a certain large side chapel where light comes 
lavishly through amber windows, wooing the spirit 
out of isolation. By the legitimate use of color the 
physical pulses are moved, the mind is led away from 
dullness and fatigue and the heart is persuaded that 
there is goodness and grace in life, the life of all 
things, because that goodness and grace are here in- 
stantly realized. 

The religious artist must know and utilize the 
power of proportion, the relations of length and 
breadth and height. The living-room in your house is 
likely an apartment some nine or ten feet high, and 
possibly thirty feet long. It is an agreeable space to 
be in. But supposing you were introduced into a vast 
hall two or three hundred feet in length and half as 
wide but the ceiling of which had only the ten foot 
elevation of your drawing-room. You can readily 
imagine the stifling effect. Such a room would of 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE 111 


course be absurd, but it suggests at once the effect of 
proportion. In a general way, the present tendency in 
church building in the matter of proportion is to in- 
crease length and height. Adventure and freedom are 
suggested by the sense of movement and space de- 
rived from these proportions. The more nearly 
square space fails to suggest movement and thus in- 
hibits adventure. The ordinary rectangular American 
church is not a very brave form. It has not the assur- 
ance of the finished order of the Greek buildings, nor 
the bold quest of the Gothic. 

Which brings us to the matter of style. Style in ar- 
chitecture is similar to style in literature. It is a prob- 
lem of language itself. There are some who can speak 
the Gothic language and some who cannot. I am re- 
minded of the swift remark of a very keen critic 
when someone proposed emphasizing the entrance 
facade of a plain building by a composition of super- 
imposed classic orders. “Oh,” he said, “you wish to 
say to everybody ‘See, I know Latin.’ ” He was evi- 
dently one of those who feel that we should attempt 
to develop our own architectural language. Just at this 
moment the larger part of our church building is de- 
rived from the Gothic. Instead of beginning with the 
classic speech as the basis of development, it is using 
Gothic terms, but using them in combinations which 
amount almost to a new style. One might say that our 
Gothic diction differs from the old Gothic as our 
spoken language differs from Elizabethan speech. 
When we shall have moved forward as far as our 
speech is from Chaucer, we shall have achieved our 


112 MODERN WORSHIP 


own style. The popularity of Gothic means that 
many do not find satisfaction in the round arch, the 
line of which is turned back upon itself by the hori- 
zontal architrave. In the pointed arch there is less 
limitation to the upward sweep of vertical lines. 

Meanwhile, we have not mastered the influence of 
our new materials, steel and concrete. The use of 
steel in small buildings dictates the horizontal line, 
in large structures it requires vertical expression. The 
arch which is necessitated in masonry structure be- 
comes not a structural but only a reminiscent form 
when used in a steel building. It is for this reason in 
part that many are pleased that the best Gothic 
builders have revived the mighty mode of pure ma- 
sonry building. There is a vibrant organism and tech- 
nical excellence throughout a structure sustained by 
pure masonry which helps at once to destroy shams 
and to inspire a high integrity of life. Coherence of 
structure when achieved in stone is the more inspir- 
ing because of the difficulties of the accomplishment. 
My own feeling is that masonry structure is the best 
architectural language of religion, however much we 
may develop our own terms and phrases in new de- 
tails that will at length give us our own style. 

A corollary of masonry structure is the solution of 
the problem of surface. A masonry wall may be de- 
vised in larger areas than any other plain surface 
without being dead. It requires no tricks or slight de- 
vices to give it life. Inasmuch as extensive plain sur- 
faces are otherwise valuable, as assisting the sim- 
plicity and composure of a great building, large or 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE 113 


small, it is especially desirable that those surfaces do 
not at the same time convey a feeling of coldness or 
deadness. A building too much cluttered with details, 
either necessary details of windows, doors and struc- 
tural parts, or details of ornamentation, induces rest- 
lessness by its excessive diversity. Many of the sur- 
face problems as well as the profound values of 
structure itself are solved by the adoption of masonry 
building. Calm repose and steadfast endurance of 
spirit are induced by a beautiful wall, laid up true 
and strong of clean stones. No thin cracking stucco 
nor wash of paint, no veined slabs of costly marbles 
recall the soul to honesty and perseverance as does a 
wall of stone or even for that matter a wall of the 
plainest brick or hard cement. 

These elements of shapes and lines, surfaces and 
colors, proportions and rhythms and other arrange- 
ments of light and dark and mass, together with sym- 
bolic detail, comprise the resources of the builder’s 
technique. These he must merge and harmonize by 
the total unity of his composition. Restraint and bal- 
ance, elimination, subordination, relativity and other 
canons he must exercise with skill if he is to accom- 
plish that supreme integration which it is his chief 
purpose to intimate. If there be no successful integra- 
tion in the structure, it cannot assist the worshiper to 
find himself or to find the One he has come to seek. I 
do not mean to say that it is always the total harmony 
of the building which aids the spirit to the achieve- 
ment of harmony. Sometimes one of the lesser parts, 
the shape of a pillar, the moldings of the soffits of an 


114 MODERN WORSHIP 


arch, the charming grace of flowing, melting lines 
and subtle shadows in a carved pulpit or reredos, ab- 
sorb the attention, initiate motions of sympathy, or 
more accurately empathy, and so start the worshiper 
on a course of imaginative contemplation in which at 
last all things are ordered, all things fall into their 
appointed places in the mystery of the all embracing 
life. Yet also oftentimes it is not one particular 
phrase of the architectural symphony which leads the 
soul to contemplation and life but the total effect of 
the whole. The first of the canons of form in archi- 
tecture, as in the other arts, is the law of unity. 

If there is One whom we seek, then surely that 
which helps us to be rid of discords within helps us to 
find Him. If it is One that we seek, whatever aids us 
to compose all the outer confusions of our days helps 
us to find Him. If there is being and life flowing 
through all things, that which enlivens us in body and 
in mind communicates that life to us. So also, con- 
versely, if all the artists that ever were have gathered 
into order and harmony the stuff of their forms it is 
because some inner conviction of order has urged 
them on. If there is a passion for composition in the 
human spirit, forever annoyed by discord, forever 
seeking peace within and without, ever taking delight 
in the great arts, it is born of an ineradicable feeling 
that there is One to be found. The church building 
then must itself be a work of art. Whatever may be 
its practical uses, whatever be the content of its sym- 
bolic teachings, its chief value will ever be the unify- 
ing mediation of its form. It is the scene of celebra- 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE, x35 


tion, it is the place of joy, it is the setting for worship, 
it is the house of God. 

Before taking leave of our attention to the church 
building as a unifying value, and making some note 
of its recollective suggestiveness, there are two or 
three other remarks to be made about symbols which 
relate to its worth for the festal side of celebration. 

First, the one chief symbol of both artistic and re- 
ligious unification in religion has always been the 
altar. It does not require the sacrifice of bullocks or 
of goats to validate the building of an altar. The sac- 
rifice of thanksgiving and the sacrifice of contrite 
hearts is the true and spiritual sacrifice that is accept- 
able. The physical objectivity of the altar as a symbol 
of the inner and spiritual sacrifice tends to draw forth 
the offering. Before the altar of God men have al- 
ways come confessing their weakness and need and so 
also with thankful hearts dedicating their strength. I 
must admit as readily as anyone that there is no ade- 
quate symbol of divinity, yet I believe that even a 
small and otherwise barren hall in which men have 
placed an altar is thereby set apart as a place of prayer 
and thereby enriched with intimations of holiness and 
sanctuary and divine life. 

Artistically, no other device has been invented, and 
one might dare to say nor can be, so effective as the 
altar as the dominating centrality which gives unity 
to the entire work of structural art. It is the only sat- 
isfying solution for the point of focal attention to 
which all other lines and shapes lead. It is a fact of 
great significance that more and more Protestant 


116 MODERN WORSHIP 


churches are realizing this. In almost all denomina- 
tions, in liberal parishes as well as conservative, there 
are already numbers of recent church buildings which 
have adopted this great historic symbol of religion. 
In every such instance of which I have heard, the 
people have been stirred and gratified, the spirit of 
devotion has been increased and the services of wor- 
ship have been improved. The possibilities of helpful 
worship are much increased by the adoption of the 
traditional chancel plan of building, where also the 
choir can be disposed about the altar and share the 
service as the Greek chorus shared the movement of 
the drama. It is less easy in such a building for the 
people to comport themselves in an irreverent man- 
ner or for the minister to conduct a slovenly service 
of worship. Reverence is enhanced and the whole 
tone of worship elevated in a building that is unmis- 
takably devoted to religion. 

The next remark is in some ways a more difficult 
one, but worthy of notice. It is that in some strange 
way a building not used has lost a part of its religious 
value, whereas signs of human presence increase the 
sense of divinity. If all that has been said about the 
influence of the arts and the power of a noble church 
building to foster the religious experience be true, 
human presence or absence would seem inconsequen- 
tial. Many will recall the soaring lines and lofty 
vaults together with the splendor of ancient glass in 
Sainte Chapelle at Paris, standing unimpaired. But 
much of the life has gone out of the building because 
religious rites are no longer performed in it. Perhaps 


4 


eae tet Berks ORT STRUCTURE i317 


the sharp regret for such a situation tends to stifle the 
values which still inhere in the great structure, be- 
cause when the ruin of a building has passed beyond 
the possibility of repair the artistic effect of its frag- 
ments may be very powerful. The Cistercian abbeys 
and the few groups of Greek columns still standing 
rouse us to the keenest aesthetic appreciation. The 
Protestant church building loses a great part of its 
value because there is nothing to invite the presence 
of the devotee or to indicate that he has lately come 
and gone. A church with an altar is better furnished 
with ever present invitation and welcome to private 
devotions than an auditorium. People have no habit 
of coming into our churches not only because they are 
locked up but also because there is nothing to suggest 
their coming excepting for public occasions. Many in- 
dividual Protestant parishes have long since realized 
this and established the custom of the ever open door 
in the church. Whether the altar is used as the central 
object of interest or not, the church building should 
be so composed as to invite visitation and offer its to- 
tal message at all times. In this connection, it is most 
fortunate if the floor spaces of the building do not 
need to be entirely occupied by seats. If one or more 
passages or aisles or chapels can be left clear of pews, 
there is space to wander about in. If, moreover, there 
are works of art in bas-relief or fresco, wood or 
glass, these serve to give life to the building and a 
rich experience to the visitor. But reminders of hu- 
man presence are important also. Fresh flowers upon 
an altar or in the vestibule indicate life and welcome. 


118 MODERN WORSHIP 


The older mode of indicating daily life in the house 
of God is the use of lights. Altar candles and sanc- 
tuary lamps directly declare to the worshiper that he 
has been expected. Many Jewish congregations still 
retain the use of the altar lamp. Probably few Prot- 
estants would care to revive the custom of the indi- 
vidual placing of little candles at shrines in a church. 
Yet when you see them in an old church you know 
that a worshiper has recently passed that way. 

The outside of a church building is important as 
well as the inside. I have in mind now not so much 
the artistic success of the structure as to line, mass and 
balance of composition but rather its success as a sym- 
bol of religion in the midst of the community. The 
church spires in the village and the cathedral towers 
of the old cities are adequate symbols of the place of 
religion in life. It is growingly difficult in modern 
cities to provide for any comparable’ prominence for 
the house of worship. The size of modern structures 
on the one hand and sectarian divisiveness on the 
other have resulted in the comparative insignificance 
of religious structures. In my own city, we are build- 
ing a three million dollar aquarium and projecting a 
ten million dollar museum of commercial art, but 
there is only one church structure in the entire city 
suitable to a metropolitan situation. I cannot here 
argue the case but only express a conviction that we 
should have and could have one or more cathedrals 
to stand as a perpetual call to worship and afford a 
proper setting for the grand function of worship in 
the civic life. We live in a time when many leaders in 


Witenes ceo OOF os. RU CT URE srr9 


the arts and sciences and many masters of commerce 
have grown up without having had much contact with 
liberal religion. Our spiritual culture is divided and 
confused. Religion has always been the informing, 
pervading power in the development of matured cul- 
ture. It can hardly be otherwise in times to come. It 
is just possible that bold projects for structures 
symbolic of the presidency of religion would go far 
toward the achievement of the cultural unity we now 
lack. Where there are no individual parish bodies of 
sufficient strength to provide such a structure, several 
religious societies might combine in a form of collec- 
tive or collegiate organization for this purpose. Such 
a form of organization would not only make possible 
a more imposing building but would itself achieve 
the more broadly civic and cultural character many 
desire to see assumed by religion. 

The church building, then, is first of all valuable 
for the celebrative life of religion. It calls us from 
work to worship, it helps us forget the many and con- 
sider the One, it ministers totality, in its harmony and 
wholeness it stands for God. 

The celebration of life is not only a festal occasion 
of worship but the remembrance of work. It is not 
only the joy of present harmony and fullness of life, 
but recollection. That recollection is not merely the 
memory of all things that have gone before but the 
survey of all things that are to be expected or desired 
or attempted. The religious experience is always the 
song of the great rhythm of God and man; the re- 
treat from the world, the return to the world; the 


120 MODERN WORSHIP 


vision of the One, the recollection of the many; sac- 
ramental reception of grace, sacrificial dedication to 
toil. 

The church building itself may assist the process of 
recollection as well as the process of retreat. It may 
be not only sanctuary but also meeting house and civic 
home. The mediaeval church was rich in many kinds 
of symbolic teaching. The building was a grand com- 
posing harmony calling the spirit away from the 
world, offering repose and peace and refreshment by 
its structural forms, but it offered also definite men- 
tal and moral content through the symbolisms of in- 
numerable decorative details. The history and the 
dogmas of the faith were set forth in carved wood 
and stone, painted glass, tapestries and frescoes in all 
parts of the church. Excepting for a meager and not 
very artistic use of painted windows, Protestantism 
has made little use of the church building as a means 
of suggesting the recollective content of religion. To- 
day there are the beginnings of a widespread realiza- 
tion of a great opportunity in the symbolism of the 
church building. 

On the whole, it might be said that religion has 
never yet fully grasped the logic of the recollective 
process, and hence never fully symbolized it in the 
arts. It has always emphasized the corporate character 
of its own life and symbolized the wider communion 
of the saints. Its recollection has corrected the vagaries 
of individual piety, but has never adequately caught 
up the great normal concerns of practical life nor the 
joys and sorrows of creative toil. To be sure, there 


be Ate in ee DECS, OFS Tt RUC TL. UR EY i231 


are the plowman of Giotto and other toilers on the 
great tower in Florence. And in the Spanish Chapel, 
coupled with the Virtues sit the Sciences. So also to- 
day, the renewed interest in symbolism thus far is 
manifested in ways which broaden the communion of 
saints with only here and there a recollection of the 
practical life. Yet even this distinctively religious 
symbolism is a very recent interest amongst the free 
churches. In the last Gothic church that I have per- 
sonally visited there are suggestive symbols every- 
where, quiet, tasteful, thoroughly subdued by the 
large scale of the structure, but vivid reminders of 
many things broad and deep in the story of human 
faith, the pelican, the star, the anchor, the crowned 
rose, the fish, the labarum, the cross. Seven corbels 
represent seven historic epochs, the seven-branched 
candlestick for the Hebrew church, the lamb for the 
early Christian age, IHS for triumph, the shield 
for the Crusader, the monk for monasticism, the 
Bible for the Reformation, the Mayflower for aspira- 
tion. As a new sign and symbol of this particular 
parish, there is carved a cross with three interlocking 
circles representing the brotherhood of man and the 
inclusive community church ideal. The new chapel 
now building at the University of Chicago will be 
adorned with symbolic plastics, the most of them 
recollective of religious development. The jambs of 
the great window of the entrance facade will recall 
the Te Deum by figures of apostles, prophets and 
martyrs. The frieze across the gable will be com- 
posed of heroic figures sketching the march of reli- 


122 MODERN WORSHIP 


gion, beginning with Abraham and following through 
to Reformation times. Zoroaster and Plato are the 
non-Christian heroes represented. For various rea- 
sons, in other parts of the building will be demi- 
figures of two University presidents and two stu- 
dents, two American statesmen, two poets, a musician 
and an architect. These serve to broaden the scope of 
religious experience. In addition to these representa- 
tions of individual persons, all connected with the 
history of religion, there will be four prominent sym- 
bolic figures representing four categories of human 
interest, the artist, the philosopher, the scientist and 
the statesman. 

One of the most interesting of recent symbolic 
works in lovely carved wood is the Shippen pulpit in 
the Unitarian church of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 
The figures represent religious liberators, Borrhaus, 
Servetus, David, Socinus, Lindsey, Channing, Mar- 
tineau, Hale, Collyer, and Pére Hyacinthe. In the 
same church there is the beginning of that wider out- 
reach toward which we are moving. A scientist, a me- 
chanic and a merchant are symbolically represented 
in the carvings of the lectern. 

Ina recent design for a reredos, there are included 
figures of Printer and Writer, Builder, Scientist, 
Statesman and Philosopher, with the familiar coup- 
let; 


Let us now praise famous men 
Even the artificer and work-master. 


You will see that I am seeking to suggest what 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE ‘123 


may be possible in a church building to assist the wor- 
shiper in his process of recollection by simple but 
definitely symbolic representations. Moreover, I am 
seeking to suggest that they represent not only the 
history of religious life but also the story of common 
life. To do this without the risk of fixing usages 
which should be fluid is difficult, yet I believe it can 
be done. One of the best categorical selections for 
symbolic representation of which I have heard is the 
ideal career of man as worked out in the church 
school building of St. John’s Reformed Church at 
Lansdale, Pennsylvania. A series of medallions in 
beautiful leaded glass carry the scheme through the 
several departments of the school. The plan is richly 
suggestive of new and vigorous developments in the 
religious arts. In the Kindergarten room, two medal- 
lions portray the Sheepfold and the Lamb in the 
Crib. For the Beginners there are nature symbols— 
Air, Earth, Sky and Sea. The Primary Department 
for children beginning their public school life has two 
symbols, the Church Flag and the Nation’s Flag. The 
Juniors are taught the unity of life by representations 
of their chief centers of life—the Home, the School, 
the Playground and the Church. Intermediate pupils 
are given two interesting symbols, the Greek Cross 
and a Fork-in-the-Road, one to set forth the four- 
fold ideal, the other emblematic of the choice of life. 
The Young People’s Department contains two pairs 
of symbols. The Torch and the Sunrise represent the 
past and the future. Liberty and law are symbolized 
in a way to teach their relations. The Adult rooms 


124 MODERN WORSHIP 


contain representations of the Open Bible and the 
Altar for religion and four symbols of work, the Art- 
ist, the Farmer, the Merchant and the Teacher bound 
by clasped hands and flowers. These works are simple 
and of small size though of rich materials. They will 
convey not merely the delight of beauty but also con- 
crete teaching of great value. 

I know of no Protestant church that has made the 
experiment I should like to see tried, as to both con- 
tent and form. If we have long had the stained glass 
window, and are now moving rapidly toward the use 
of carved figures in wood and stone, I should like to 
see attempted also the painted fresco. If we are to 
have the advantages of austerity, restraint and struc- 
tural coherence to be had in buildings of stone ma- 
sonry, we must discover ways of adding warmth and 
color. As to the content of symbolic representations in 
color, I suggest the category of the world’s work. 
The great poles of alternating life are worship and 
work. There are other ways of cataloging experience 
for the sake of understanding or management. Yet it 
would seem that all experience might be gathered un- 
der the descriptions of celebrative worship on holy 
days and common toil on ordinary days. If many dif- 
ferent phases of the world’s work could be symbol- 
ized on the walls of the church aisles, these frescoes 
would serve many profound purposes. They would 
afford immediate delight according to their excellence 
as works of art. They would teach the morals of pro- 
ductivity, inspire the worshiper to emulation and 
achievement. They would give direction to the ur- 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE 125 


gencies of creativity born in the mystic experience. 
They would acknowledge and celebrate the mutual 
interdependence of all men. They would offer a con- 
crete content for the recollective experience of the 
worshiper. Worship is the forgetting of work, release 
from the monotony of irksome labor, withdrawal 
and unification. But it is also the remembrance of 
work. The mystic way is a path forth and back. Its 
course is not complete without the return to responsi- 
bility. Indeed, the One whom we seek cannot be the 
One whom we need unless all separate things also are 
found in Him. Indeed, no separate thing is found un- 
til it is found in Him. The oneness we seek is that 
which comprehends all things. It cannot be easily or 
cheaply apprehended. The joy of the celebration is 
not joy at all if we must return to disorder and sepa- 
ration. Its very joy is the joy of finding the import 
of our affairs composed in the grand design of the 
divine life. 

It is this essential character of worship itself which 
requires at its very heart the recollection of affairs, 
the rearrangement of their importance and the recon- 
secration of the self to them. I sympathize with the 
intelligent woman who objected to my project for 
frescoes of the world’s work on the ground of her 
desire for sanctuary. I should be the last to propose 
anything that would lessen the value of the church 
building as a place of refuge and of communion with 
God, yet the very integrity of that communion in- 
volves a reappraisal of the active life as also a con- 
cern for the divine life. Protestant sermons have 


126 MODERN WORSHIP 


never been lacking in moral urgencies. Ethical ear- 
nestness is the glory of American religion. But there 
is much ethical idealism dissevered from the religion 
of the church because we have failed to bring the 
world’s work into the celebrations of religion. Our 
ethical discussion has been serious but not always 
happy. If we could gather special groups of toilers, 
hand workers and brain workers to offer definite 
praise for what they do for us all in their daily life of 
productivity, we should not only assist them to a 
nobler conception of the total worth of their labor but 
also be better circumstanced to suggest improvements 
in the ideals of industry. The gathering of such 
groups would be made the easier and the happier if 
they might be invited to a church building where the 
dignities of toil were always upheld in portrayals of 
agriculture and mining, commerce and poetry and all 
the labors of man. And how natural on these occa- 
sions to make them bright festivals by a processional 
of minister and choristers to conduct a portion of the 
service from the chapel representing the work espe- 
cially celebrated. 

Many needed values might be discovered by a 
bold experiment such as I have sketched. Here is a 
way to regain the festal note in religion neither bi- 
zarre nor artificial. Here is a way to recover the deco- 
rative riches of the church without meaningless re- 
vivals. Here is a way to connect religion with daily 
life, interesting and vital. Here is a form adequate to 
give carrying power to the big content of modern 
humanistic ethics. Here is a way to bring into the 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE 127 


church, if only occasionally, many men, perhaps 
whole classes of men, not now related to specific re- 
ligion. Here is a way for the church to regain the 
leadership of culture, that total societal culture which 
is both good taste in the arts and noble disposition in 
all the relations of life. 

I am well aware of the artistic difficulties of sym- 
bolic art. The art critics do not much approve works 
which begin in concepts. But religion has used sym- 
bolic art extensively in the past and may do so again. 
Those who would hesitate to use the strong notes of 
the painted fresco might attempt quieter works, such 
as carvings in wood. Some of the finest wood carving 
in the world has been done in America within the last 
decade, and much more of it than most of us are 
aware of. Compositional works in glass are now being 
rendered with a mastery of that medium comparable 
to the best of mediaeval artistry. Here and there in 
America are parishes which long for the infinitely 
gracious beauty of decorative and symbolic forms 
wrought with painstaking and loving care such as we 
have been taught once characterized the craftsman- 
ship of olden times. And they will achieve their de- 
sires. There is already well under way a revival of 
interest in the religious-arts which will soon make the 
churches of America the outstanding art centers of 
the land. It is good to collect precious bits of the old 
ecclesiastical arts in our great museums. But also it 
seems a strange blindness that some have, who cherish 
a few crumbling fragments of a once brilliant art 
without being aware that we might again have, in- 


128 MODERN WORSHIP 


deed are already beginning to have, a new and living 
religious art of our own. 

The religious structure, then, is at once the scene 
and symbol of the supreme experience of life. As a 
work of art its effect is that of pure form. The pri- 
mary aesthetic appeal of the building contains no spe- 
cific content of ideas, it is the appeal of mass, line, 
proportion, rhythm and other formal elements of 
structural art. Its own coherence tends to induce har- 
mony in the same elemental way as any other work 
of art, and to satisfy the deeper thirst of human na- 
ture for order in the self and in the world. When to 
this aesthetic appeal is added the known fact that the 
building stands for the idea of order, for worship, 
for God, its unifying effect becomes very powerful. 
But the very desire for unity is born of our everyday 
experience with many forms of mutiplicity. We do 
not crave a unity which forgets that diversity but 
which composes and harmonizes it. Into the church 
must be brought the discord and distractions, the 
duties and pleasures we desire to have unified. There 
in the worship of the church, the events and ideas 
recollected are rejected or praised according to their 
total significance, according to their import in the 
light of all things. In the celebration of life nothing 
is ignored, it is life entire and complete that is loved 
and praised. 

The church building affords the most favorable 
conditions for this celebrative achievement. It assists 
the soul on its retreat toward sanctuary and God. It 
may assist also the return to the world. It may con- 


THE AESTHETICS OF STRUCTURE 129 


tain such symbolic representations as shall recall the 
worshiper to his work. If worship is the celebration of 
life, it must be rich in a content recollective of the 
goods of all days as well as the good of holy day. 
The abiding form of celebration, the one eternal or- 
der of God is filled with the ever moving content of 
all things old and new. Worship as the celebration of 
life is the active love and praise of all the life there 
is, the love and praise of God. 








ae Ke 
CHAPTER Vv 


Problems in Contrast 


There are at present no indications that the great bulk of 
non-liturgical churches in America are likely to develop lit- 
urgies in the near future. The tradition of the freer service 
is very strong, and the American temperament requires oc- 
casion for informality and initiative. There is probably a 
principle at stake here, which may not be too easily relin- 
quished. But the present fact is that the original truth of the 
free service has become in practice a rather uninspired and 
uninspiring platitude. 


WILLARD L. SPERRY 


There is a kind of worship which is perfectly objective and 
sincere and that is quite as possible for the intelligent man 
of to-day as it was for the ancient:—namely that union of 
awe and gratitude which is reverence, combined perhaps 
with consecration and a suggestion of communion, which 
most thoughtful men must feel in the presence of the Cos- 
mic forces and in reflecting upon them. 


James Bissetr PRATT 


V. 


ANY baffling problems occur and recur to 

those who are concerned with the conduct of 
public worship. The most of these take the form of 
contrasting principles. Some of them were given very 
scant attention in the four original lectures. Others 
were omitted entirely as not falling easily into the 
schematic plan chosen. I believe that the most of 
them are at least partially solved by the formulas set 
forth in the lectures. A more specific word about 
some of them might be valuable. 

The problem of formality and informality has not 
yet been faced by the evangelical churches. The 
type of worship service to which the typical American 
Protestant is accustomed is essentially informal. It 
uses fixed forms, doxologies, prayers, anthems, 
psalms, and other recurring materials, but the man- 
agement of the forms has been informal. The minis- 
ter has been so little the priest and so much the 
preacher, so little the functionary and so largely a 
person, that his conduct of the service is highly indi- 
vidual. Our great congregations have gathered round 
interesting and magnetic personalities. Without being 
immodest, though many have been that, these men 
have not been gifted in self-effacement or mergence 
in the process of their religious acts. Big-voiced, elo- 
quent men accustomed to moving numbers of people 
by the arts of rhetoric and the vigor of personal mag- 
netism simply do not know how to moderate them- 
selves to the larger rhythms of a more objective wor- 


134 MODERN WORSHIP 


ship. It is a little difficult, sometimes, to put your 
finger on just this or that inflection of voice, unneces- 
sary remark or subtle attitude which constitutes a per- 
sonal intrusion. Yet I have oftentimes observed it. 
Many of the best denominational preachers do not 
know how to conduct a formal service of worship be- 
cause they cannot keep themselves out of it. They are 
like the golf players who cannot be rid of the fault of 
pressing the ball. The good golfer knows that the 
right form will itself do the work. The proper club 
swung properly will lift the ball. No extra intrusive 
pressing is required. It is precisely so with a liturgy. 
Not that the spirit or emotion of the minister makes 
no difference. But the spirit and emotion must be so 
merged into the technique of the form selected that 
they are not obtrusive. There are very great values to 
be enjoyed from the personal conduct of worship. 
There are men who can come into a gathering of 
worshipers, large or small, and lift the people toward 
God in the most simple and immediate way as they 
offer prayers, announce hymns and speak the direct 
word of exhortation. It would be an irreparable loss 
if this gift of the spirit should be quenched. It is a 
gift through which many wonderful aspects of evan- 
gelical piety have been developed and nurtured. But 
it is a highly subjective and erratic gift. More and 
more people today are unsatisfied not with the occa- 
sions when the gift succeeds but with the far larger 
number of occasions when it fails of operation. There 
is an increasing desire for the more dependable 
quality of objective and impersonal worship. 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 135 


It is always difficult to estimate tendencies of the 
times, because almost every major movement has its 
countercurrents. Moreover, both current and counter- 
current in one region are affected by movements of 
another character altogether. In noting the actuality 
of a widespread desire for improvement in worship, 
and a renewed interest in liturgical forms of worship, 
it is fair to note opposite influences also. There are 
typical evangelical church leaders who are aware of a 
rising liturgical interest but who dislike and oppose 
it. They rightly fear the loss of some important 
values in their modes of expression. There are certain 
religious radicals to whom any sort of traditional 
form is disagreeable. The values cherished by both of 
these parties are important. The temper of evangeli- 
cal piety is a vital force, keeping always fresh the 
spirit of evangelism and revival. The free-minded 
pursuit of the truth is no less necessary to the vitality 
of religion. There is nothing to fear from the dis- 
coveries of truth. There is something to fear, how- 
ever, from the bad religious psychology and the 
crudity which radicals often manifest and there is 
much that is wanting in the evangelical temper as the 
only spiritual outlook. 

Neither of these parties is sufficient for the future. 
The one is the large body of American Protestantism, 
the other a small but energetic group of admirable 
progressives. Curiously enough, both suffer the same 
difficulty, both typify the immaturity of American 
religion. The usages and customs of evangelicalism 
still retain a character derived from the frontier. The 


136 MODERN WORSHIP 


free and easy informality of pioneer life has not yet 
disappeared from many religious societies. In some 
churches one feels as though the tentative and tempo- 
rary makeshifts of the early days had been crystal- 
lized. Indeed, it is true of all Protestantism that it 
has never entered an adequately constructive stage, 
that it still lives upon a comparatively narrow range 
of modes and methods and forms of expression. Of 
certain religious radicals it is noteworthy that they 
have reacted against the intellectual weaknesses of 
frontier religion without themselves being in posses- 
sion of that culture which might have led them to re- 
act also against the cultural meagerness of the evan- 
gelical system. 

So despite both these countercurrents, there is a 
strong tide of desire for deeper experience and better 
forms in worship. Unfortunately, perhaps, the sense 
of need for better forms sometimes outruns the de- 
velopment of the deeper experience. For instance, 
there are numbers of new churches and academic 
chapels built in a style and arrangement of parts 
which were originally developed for and still call for 
some form of liturgical worship. But the people who 
use them do not seem to know how to behave in their 
own buildings. They have not previously developed 
any exercises of devotion suitable for transfer to a 
new building of the type constructed. They suffer the 
dilemma of trying to conduct an informal type of 
worship where it is out of place, without knowing 
just how to develop that which is appropriate to their 
new scene and setting. Yet these very buildings are a 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 227 


testimony of dissatisfaction with the old methods. 
Possibly they will inspire deeper desires and assist in 
pointing the way toward the better day of which they 
are a presage. At any rate, no one can study the recent 
church architecture of America and deny a wide- 
spread change in the direction of nobler forms of 
worship. 

There are already large numbers of people who 
find the shifting emotions of an individual minister a 
very undependable basis for the inspirations of wor- 
ship. They are beginning to value the stable and ob- 
jective character of a more formal liturgy. Others 
remain unmoved, if indeed they are not definitely 
annoyed by the literary ineptitudes of the average 
minister in his conduct of worship. They find refresh- 
ment in the vigor, variety and grace of better-pre- 
pared materials. Some are definitely aware that reli- 
gion is not primarily intellectual, and they find only 
a thin and dry experience in most of the extremely 
liberal churches. Still others are weary of the sermon 
as the chief feature of the Protestant service. They 
are busy with ideas in many other connections and 
while they value thinking in religion, they wish also 
to find in church such large and capacious forms as 
may be favorable to the reorganization of their own 
ideas and to the enjoyments of vitality and peace. 
For all these classes of persons the typical evangelical 
service is no longer satisfying. In a general way, the 
fault which underlies all these difficulties is the ex- 
cessive subjectivity of the informal mode of worship. 

Which leads to the much discussed problem of the 


138 MODERN WORSHIP 


subjective and objective phases of worship. As in the 
case of most dilemmas the logical limits of either 
choice lead to absurdities. Worship conducted with- 
out any end save the effect upon the congregation be- 
comes self-conscious and fails to achieve the larger 
values sought. Purely objective worship, careless of 
participants or human influence, has never appealed 
to Protestantism. The dilemma is perhaps not a real 
one. In the older Christian rites the central and most 
sacred act of worship was the great oblation, origi- 
nally the sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving and contri- 
tion. In later rituals the oblation became almost 
purely objective, an offering of external, corporeal 
elements. Even so, in most of the Eastern liturgies it 
scarce ever lacked vestiges of the idea of spiritual 
offering. In either case there is an intermixture of ob- 
jective and subjective aspects. The more purely ob- 
jective rite was performed in order to obtain the 
benefits of salvation. These benefits were often con- 
ceived in a crudely objective way. The great religious 
tradition, however, has always been a more spiritual 
one. The oblation, offered to an objective Other, was 
a spiritual, that is to say, a subjective offering, and 
the benefit desired was conceived as a real divine 
grace and gift, that is, objectively derived, yet con- 
ceived as a spiritual or subjective benefit. There is no 
valid objection of modern science or philosophy to 
such a conception of worship. There are religious ob- 
jections to objective worship in its crude forms. 
There are both religious and psychological objections 
to purely subjective worship which takes no genuine 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 139 


account of some supreme object to which devotion is 
offered and from which grace is received. As has been 
suggested in the lecture on Celebration, and in the 
discussion of the pattern of worship, the nature of 
worship is an awareness of good, a recognition, a 
thanksgiving, an offering of rejoicing, followed by 
renewal and vitality. It is a great giving and a great 
receiving. It is ascent and return. I am now more 
than ever inclined to emphasize this double nature of 
worship, as offering and grace, as sacrifice and sacra- 
ment. There is a mighty and perhaps central value to 
be recovered in the conception and in the deed of the 
great oblation. Whether Protestantism might recap- 
ture the practice of going to church not to hear a ser- 
mon or “to be inspired,” but to make an offering, is 
questionable. Sometimes it seems to me to be the one 
needed teaching and effort in this great matter. 

In any case, the more formal and objective type of 
service is better for both sacrifice and sacrament. The 
genuine act of self-dedication, expressed in the jubi- 
lation of praise and thanksgiving and in some form 
of consecration can hardly be performed through the 
informalities of the more free services of worship. 
On the other hand, also, there is in a developed litur- 
gic form a more solid and objective body as a sacra- 
mental vehicle of benefit. Something more substan- 
tial and objective than the average free church 
worship is called for by these and other considera- 
tions if our worship is to be more than an erratic and 
subjective exercise. 

Another of the supposed problems of worship is 


140 “MODERN WORSHIP 


that of enrichment and simplicity. It is assumed by 
critics of liturgical worship that formality means en- 
richment and elaboration. In the best sense it does, 
but not primarily. On the contrary, the very first 
canon of good form is simplicity. No work of art is a 
work of art at all save as its multiformity is subdued 
and mastered by some strong and simple outline of 
easily apprehensible unity. A good service may be 
elaborate, but it must be simple; it may contain many 
treasures of enrichment, but they must be merged 
and ordered by a competent total form. The usual 
service should not be too rich or elaborate. Many in- 
formal services that I have observed are the most 
elaborate. Some are elaborate without being rich. In 
one church that I have in mind, the service takes 
twice as long as it should and has too many numbers. 
It is elaborate but informal. It is not so good as those 
which are simple but formal. If an enriched service is 
desired it can hardly avoid confusion and over-elabo- 
ration if informally conducted. It may be given sim- 
plicity by adequate care in the fashioning of its domi- 
nating forms and by strict adherence to a formal 
mode of conduct. 

Enrichment, moreover, may be very desirable in- 
stead of undesirable. Religion has been defined by 
some as the abundant life, the ever expanding out- 
reach to make connection with more and more aspects 
of reality. Far too often, and especially in evangelical 
circles, the religious experience which congregations 
of people have actually derived from the church has 
been a narrowing one rather than an increase of ap- 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 141 


prehensions. Through other contacts and connections 
many people develop a richer cultural experience, a 
more adventurous life of thought and a more vital 
share in the ethical endeavors of the day. To resume 
the language of the lectures, the process of retreat 
from the world has been emphasized but the recollec- 
tive process has been little developed. Evangelical 
Christianity is generally failing today at this point. 
It has not brought the treasures of the arts and sci- 
ences into the recollective efforts of its worship. To 
be sure, the sermon is the chief opportunity for this 
enrichment, but not the only one. In the forms of 
worship themselves must be found a place for re- 
minders of all the major adventures of the spirit 
which engage the interest and devotion of the people. 
The process of collection and comprehension is of 
little worth if there be only meager materials to be 
surveyed. The process of retreat becomes cowardice 
and failure and ignorance if it does not carry with it a 
vivid awareness of many aspects of life. The struggle 
for unity and harmony of life has little meaning if it 
does not seek to master the genuine multiplicities 
which people face. The enrichment which many de- 
sire in worship is not a mere matter of more sump- 
tuous forms. It is rather an enlargement of the scope 
of the mystic recollection. It is the remembrance of 
more affairs and more values as well as the immediate 
achievement of a wider range of values. This is one 
of the opportunities of an improved lectionary. In- 
stead of sermons which are little more than frames 
for extensive literary quotations, it is better to use the 


142 MODERN WORSHIP 


literary material frankly as scripture readings in the 
service of worship. I have already made in the fourth 
lecture a suggestion of method for extending and 
vivifying the recollective content of worship in the 
sphere of industry. 

Another of the contrasts of worship today is that 
of specific or generic religion. It is a time of growing 
impatience with separatistic movements and of in- 
creasing knowledge of other historic lines of spiritual 
life than our own, no matter to which strain any of us 
may happen to belong. One does not need to see very 
far ahead to see that the prevalent desires for Protes- 
tant unity will grow into desires for religious unity. 
It is possible that we shall soon realize that we can- 
not permanently remain apart as separate religionists 
any more than we can remain separate denomination- 
alists. Increasing occasions for spiritual fellowship 
are no longer confined to the bounds of Protestant 
Christianity. We are rapidly multiplying opportuni- 
ties of contact with those of other faiths. Here we 
touch upon a vast world process far too large for dis- 
cussion in this connection, yet it comes to our atten- 
tion many times and in many ways and cannot be 
ignored. Almost within the lifetime of living men, 
many ancient races and nations have passed through 
drastic changes involved in the world-wide scope of 
commerce and the world-wide commonality of politi- 
cal ideas. This process of developing a world commu- 
nity of ideas and experience is moving forward with 
great rapidity. There are no longer any corners of the 
globe where major races are entirely unaware of cer- 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 143 


tain leading aspects of modern life. To believe that 
the usages of religion can escape this process is fatu- 
ous. Some are glad to recognize it and to set their 
course of action in line with it. They feel that the 
time has come for modern religion to break away 
from the existing bodies and form itself anew outside 
the bounds of any historic religion. There is much to 
say for such a course. It frees the worshiping com- 
munity from embarrassing connections with the 
overly conservative parties in the church. It stimu- 
lates the imagination to fresh outlooks and new con- 
structive formulations. It affords opportunity for 
fellowship with those who have inherited other reli- 
gious traditions. It permits the conservation of values 
from various historic religions. 

Meanwhile, however, there are some who regret 
the loss of color, distinction, charm and variety of 
life involved in the breakdown of ancient cultures. In 
this great world process of enlarging interrelations, 
they see a leveling down of life, a confusion of 
values, a corruption of cultures, an impoverishment 
of life. In the same way they rebel against the loss of 
distinction and color involved in any movement of 
syncretism or eclecticism in religion. Understanding 
the profound relations of religion and culture, they 
believe that it is neither possible nor desirable to de- 
velop the same culture or the same religion for the 
entire human race. Indeed, there are already power- 
ful countercurrents opposing the processes of eclecti- 
cism. The major racial and nationalistic movements 
of the time are in large part economic and political, 


144 MODERN WORSHIP 


but more profoundly they are also cultural. In India 
and in China, the politics of the West are more ac- 
ceptable than Western culture and religion. 

Many Chinese Nationalists do not wish to become 
Christians. They wish to revive the best elements in 
their most ancient religious and moral structures. 
Whatever they admire in Christianity they wish to 
graft upon their own native stock. They have no 
heart for any root and branch extermination of their 
own tree of life. But many Christians feel the same 
thing. Christianity also is a culture as well as a reli- 
gion. Both as religion and culture it contains within 
itself ample vitalities for the sloughing off of out- 
worn tissues and the putting forth of new buds of de- 
velopment. 

From the point of view of spiritual continuity and 
wealth, it would seem to be far more desirable for 
the followers of Mahatma Gandhi to remain inside 
the ancient frame of the Hindu faiths than to come 
into formal fellowship with Christianity, or than, re- 
jecting both, to seek a new eclectic formation. From 
precisely the same point of view, it would seem to be 
more desirable for those of us born in Christendom 
to remain inside the ancient frame of Christianity. A 
premature eclecticism defeats its own ends. Seeming 
to broaden the range of religious usage and experi- 
ence, it rather narrows it. It cuts off without a suffi- 
cient period of testing and retesting, some of the most 
precious and beautiful religious treasures. It barters 
away the family heirlooms for the cheaper furniture 
that may happen to be the taste of a less mature life. 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 145 


To maintain the historic continuity, on the other 
hand, and the present fellowship of: the visible 
church, serves many deep and instinctive desires in 
the West as in the East, yet it does not answer also 
the equally powerful desires for change and growth 
unless the Christian churches are to be far more fa- 
vorable to new development than they have been. For 
my own part, I-should prefer to enter a church en- 
riched by certain symbols of Christianity, and con- 
taining also symbolic reminders of other faiths, than 
to enter a building barren of historic acknowledg- 
ments of any kind. I believe that such a building 
would be the more gratefully entered by the devotee 
of an alien faith. Instead of casting out our Christian 
symbols, I should prefer to bring in others also. In 
parish churches with sufficient strength to erect build- 
ings of large scale, there is opportunity for a Chapel 
of All Faiths. In cities where there are large alien 
populations such a chapel might frequently meet the 
needs of many strangers who have no other sanc- 
tuary. It might also serve to quicken and broaden the 
spiritual fellowship of the Christian congregation it- 
self. The principle of specific religion is maintained, 
but modified to show respect for other specific faiths. 

The same principle applies to the problem of the 
so-called community church. Hitherto the commu- 
nity church has developed its usages by a process of 
subtraction instead of addition. It has brought to- 
gether various elements on the basis of some common 
denominator which has often proved to be a very 
slight foundation. My own conviction is that the dona 


146 MODERN WORSHIP 


fide community church must proceed by the method 
of addition. Any group of people with any kind of 
religious usage should be given a place in the actual 
community church. Instead of leaving out the par- 
ticular forms and customs of differing groups, they 
should all be brought in. The true community church 
will be a place where the forms of worship are not 
restricted to the mediocrities of typical Protestantism, 
but rather enlarged to include the rites and customs 
of greatly divergent religious bodies. 

Allied with this is the problem of personal or so- 
cial religion. The strict logic of personal religion calls 
for no social worship whatever. The strict logic of so- 
cial worship is theocracy, the complete mergence of 
church and state. The American consciousness has al- 
ways assumed the separation of church and state as 
axiomatic. This view is derived not from the Ref- 
ormation on the Continent but from the separatistic 
movement in England. The church is a body of be- 
lievers, not the whole citizenship. Religion is an 
immediate and individual experience of God, not 
simply a comprehending organization of men. The 
celebrations of religion as expressed in the hymns 
and prayers of the church are largely the celebrations 
of personal salvation. This conception and practice 
has achieved two great values for religion, the genu- 
ineness of the experience and the depth or intensity 
of it. But it has also left outside the institutions of 
religion many people who cannot claim the experi- 
ence. Nations which have maintained a state church 
have perhaps suffered some loss of depth in religious 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 147 


experience, but they have gained in comprehensive- 
ness. They could gain much more if they might more 
completely pursue the logic of their choice. They are 
well circumstanced to expand the conception of com- 
prehensiveness to include the celebrations of many 
aspects of life not now much noticed by religion. 

I am thinking of this matter in some very concrete 
ways. For instance, some large American universities 
have recently abandoned required attendance on reli- 
gious services. I believe they would not have done so 
if we were not all so fixedly confirmed in the notion 
of religion as strictly personal. If the faculty of a 
great university had an imaginative concept of reli- 
gion as a comprehending and societal category, the 
logic of that concept would develop an academic 
service of worship as the central feature of university 
life. If we begin by assuming that religion is a purely 
personal concern, supplemented by the assumption 
that it is also specific and historic, then we eliminate 
all those who cannot claim it for themselves person- 
ally or who cannot agree to its specific form. If, on the 
other hand, we assume that religion is the attempt of 
an entire societal body to achieve the highest self- 
consciousness and relational character of which it is 
capable, then by very definition that religion must in- 
clude all members of that particular society. At any 
rate, I should like to see some great university make 
the attempt to express itself as a whole in the highest 
corporate manner, with the definite consciousness that 
such expression may be and is religious. 

In much the same way some American community 


148 MODERN WORSHIP 


may in time have enough imaginative elements in it 
to attempt a religious experiment from the societal 
point of view rather than from the purely personal 
and individual point of view. A group of groups will 
be formed which will say to each other, We propose 
to construct a religious body comprising all our con- 
cerns: we begin with no prejudicial notions of per- 
sonal religious experience: we wish to bring together 
all our affairs and seek to understand them, enjoy 
them and direct them in the highest imaginable ways. 
If some of those groups were typical Protestant 
churches, then their cherished insights would be in- 
cluded in the whole. If some of the groups were 
secular civic bodies their affairs also would be taken 
account of. 

I am not proposing a state church but a nobler and 
more inclusive form of community church. In the 
fourth lecture there is a suggestion of what any local 
parish church might do to lift its religious experience 
toward the character of a comprehending category. 
It is of course true that churches have always at- 
tempted to attain something of this quality. The joys 
and sorrows of all sorts and conditions of men and 
now especially all sorts of social conditions are re- 
membered in the church. No one can claim, however, 
that any church of our time has been very highly suc- 
cessful in the vivid representation of the many as- 
pects of life which are the concerns of the commu- 
nity. No one local religious body in the nature of the 
case can be inclusive of many community concerns in 
a concrete way. What I am trying to suggest here is 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 149 


that in some communities it may be worth while to at- 
tempt the societal point of view in religion by a form 
of collective organization. I hope for the organiza- 
tion of collegiate churches, free cathedrals, where 
several religious bodies together with civic bodies will 
codperate in a big experiment of societal religion. 
Some of the constituent churches might select to 
worship together, others would be assigned separate 
hours or separate chapels for their distinctive rites 
and usages. It would be eminently desirable if a con- 
siderable variety in forms of worship might thus be 
developed under the same roof. Such a plan would 
permit the conservation by any religious body of all 
its cherished principles and customs. It would permit 
any included church to codperate with other organ- 
izations in developing newer forms of the celebration 
of life without having to abandon the separate enjoy- 
ment of its old forms. 

In another place, I have more fully set forth the 
conception and possible plan of operation for an 
American cathedral.* Some such project is the only 
conceivable way to bring into the celebrations of reli- 
gion all the actual concerns which ought to be in- 
cluded in them, and also to bring to the civic life that 
elevation and unity which cannot be achieved by any- 
thing less than religion. It would be the nearest ap- 
proach to the state church possible to the genius of 
America. It would have no interest for those who are 
entirely satisfied with the conception of religion as 
purely private and personal, though it would in no 

1 Century Magazine, March, 1925. 


150 MODERN WORSHIP 


way lessen the opportunities of such. It is the inevi- 
table logic of development for all those who feel the 
weakness of private religion. It is the logic which 
ought to be considered in those countries which have 
a state church. If the French nation, which claims the 
ownership of its glorious mediaeval monuments as 
the possession of all the people, might open the doors 
of its great cathedrals for other rites as well as the 
Roman, such a procedure would signalize a new de- 
velopment of national culture and spiritual progress. 
The great Gothic aisles might again afford worthy 
setting for occasions of social solidarity and celebra- 
tion. If our American cities could erect similarly no- 
ble structures, they too would provide opportunity 
not only for the gatherings of small bodies but also 
for large scale occasions of community realization 
and the recognition of the values for all contributed 
by many circles of life. 

This antinomy of personal and societal religion has 
thus led us into a conception which may seem fantas- 
tic to some. It is a conception, however, which has al- 
ready been sensed in a number of quarters. The dean 
of the cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New 
York City is making certain phases of the conception 
a reality. In Chicago there is a Free Cathedral So- 
ciety organized to consider and foster the idea. It is a 
conception, moreover, which can guide experiments 
on a small scale in many places as a preliminary to 
more ambitious attempts. It is a conception which 
does not preclude but rather fosters any and all in- 
creased intensities of devotion in the line of specific 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 151 


and personal religion. It is a conception which grows 
inevitably out of any serious attempt to prefigure the 
possibilities of modern worship. 

Amongst the problems of worship one of the most 
practical is that of congregational participation and 
priestly conduct. There is an increase of interest in 
what may be called democratic worship. There is a 
growing feeling which is wholesome and sound that 
social worship is something which must be genuinely 
shared by the individual worshipers, something to 
which each must contribute a vital part. The service 
of the Roman church is conducted entirely by the 
priest and choristers, the people having no share in 
the liturgy proper. But in the Roman church the 
people have been taught to make personal prepara- 
tion for their devotions and to make active spiritual 
responses expressed by physical posture and gesture 
at appropriate points in the drama of the ritual. 
Though it seems to be slight, such participation is real 
and profound. The fault of the Protestant platform 
type of rhetorical sermon as the chief source of in- 
spiration is just here. It is something done for the 
people rather than by them. It does not call forth 
previous preparation for worship nor worthy re- 
sponse and participation in the midst of worship. One 
of the difficulties which some ministers have dis- 
covered in their attempts to improve the service of 
worship is the unpreparedness of the people for their 
own necessary contribution to it. It is not wise to 
change customary forms too radically nor to set up a 
fixed form of liturgy which is planned for the minis- 


152 MODERN WORSHIP 


ter only nor to arrange parts for the people which 
seem to them artificial. But it is possible with patience 
to develop liturgical parts such as short prayers, 
litany responses or creedal recitals in which the con- 
gregation can be led to participate in a genuine and 
simple manner. Sometimes modest improvements 
along these lines can be introduced without previous 
discussion. Sometimes the church itself can be inter- 
ested in a desire for experiment and growth in the art 
of worship. In any case, it is necessary to avoid foist- 
ing upon the people strange usages which they cannot 
naturally share. 

New modes of participation by the people will 
doubtless be discovered in new attempts to incorpo- 
rate into the celebrations of religion the concerns of 
various social and civic circles of life. I know of no 
instance of an industrial group coming to church to 
present a kind of corporate offering of toil or a recital 
of accomplishments. The very attendance of an or- 
ganized body to hear a recital made on their behalf 
would be a genuine mode of participation in public 
worship. The presence of persons representing sev- 
eral phases of industrial or civic life would afford op- 
portunity for an increased sense of their common par- 
ticipation in larger ends than they severally achieve. 

This brief notice of problems in contrast tends to 
confirm the value of the conception of worship as the 
celebration of life. And, in turn, the conception as- 
sists the solution of all the problems from that of 
good form to that of participation. Form is arrange- 
ment, design, order, categorical scheme. It is more 


PROBLEMS IN CONTRAST 153 


than manners or method or other secondary concern. 
The great generic form of celebration will give order 
to the many concerns of a rich and varied content. 
Then in the experience of worship the integration of 
form will be transformed into the integration of pur- 
pose as the worshiper is moved to review the practical 
life and to return from celebration to toil. The ad- 
venture of worship is begun by retreat to the organ- 
izing and unifying form of the celebration of life in 
the sanctuary of God; it is not complete without the 
creative purpose of renewed participation in the prac- 
tical life of the world. 


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